Pequod (Moby-Dick) Pequod (Moby-Dick) Pequod is a fictional 19th-century Nantucket whaling ship that appears in the 1851 novel "Moby-Dick" by American author Herman Melville. "Pequod" and her crew, commanded by Captain Ahab, are central to the story, which, after the initial chapters, takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans. Most of the characters in the novel are part of "Pequod"s crew, including the narrator Ishmael. Ishmael encounters the ship after he arrives in Nantucket and learns of three ships that are about to leave on three-year cruises. Tasked by
Whaling in Japan century. For example, a large private whaling fleet was owned (through a variety of holding companies and flags of convenience) by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and gained notoriety for ignoring all limits of size and species. When the Peruvian navy finally stopped and seized the Onassis fleet in 1954, and just as sanctions were to be applied, the entire fleet was sold to Japan for $8.5 million. Onassis' factory ship, the "Olympic Challenger", was renamed the "Kyokuyo Maru II". The Japanese trawler, "Shunyo-maru", later became a combined catcher/factory whaling ship, MV "Tonna", and was owned by Andrew M. Behr who