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
Nantucket (ship) oild but lost the Ship after carrying us safely over thousands of miles by water we left her upon the Rocks." Details of the ship come from Judith Navas Lund, whaling Masters and Whaling Voyages Sailing from American Ports. Almira's journal is quoted extensively in Joan Druett, "Petticoat Whalers, Whaling Wives at Sea 1820-1920". (University Press of New England, 2001). Nantucket (ship) The Nantucket was a 350-ton whaler built in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1837. First master, David N. Edwards, 1837-40 (left ship, replaced by F. C. Sanford), then: George Washington Gardner, 1841–45; Benjamin C. Gardner, 1845–50; Richard C. Gibbs 1850-54