Ishmael (Moby-Dick) morning Ishmael and Queequeg head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up for a voyage on the whaler "Pequod", under Captain Ahab. Ahab is obsessed by the white whale, Moby Dick, who on a previous voyage has severed his leg. In his quest for revenge Ahab has lost all sense of responsibility, and when the whale sinks the ship, all crewmembers drown, with the exception of Ishmael: “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee” (Job) says the epigraph. Ishmael keeps himself afloat on a coffin until he is picked up by another whaling ship, the "Rachel". The name Ishmael is
Whaling in Australia in Western Australia in 1949 at Carnarvon. Norwegian factory ships and catchers sailing to and from the Antarctic would call at Hobart for provisions, men and repairs. They also tried whaling off the coast of Tasmania. A factory ship reached Tasmania in January 1912 and took 1,599 barrels of oil off the coast. Another factory ship took just 480 barrels of oil off the coast of Australia but found a single piece of ambergris that weighed 1,003 lbs, the largest ever recorded till that time, which sold in London for £23,000. By 1956 there were six whaling stations operating in