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
Richard Douglass Street as a "granite" icon to the Whaling Era. Alexander was the captain to many of the most successful early whaling voyages out of New London. A yet unconfirmed story about him is his ship eventually rescued stranded survivors of the Pequod. Richard Douglass Captain Richard Douglass (1746–1828) was born in New London, Connecticut in 1746 to Stephen and Patience Douglass. Richard Douglass ran a successful cooper business. Already in 1760 where there more than 40 ships from Brigs to Sloops registered in New London many under the Shaw Family flag conducting business in the East and West Indies as