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
Ems (ship) 1910, the "Ems" was sold to Tønsberg Whaling Company of Norway. She was resold in 1912 to another Norwegian owner and refitted as a whaling and guano ship. In 1916 she was sold to the Argentine Whaling Company, was renamed the "Fortuna" but kept her Norwegian crew. On 28 October 1927, she caught fire, off the Irish coast while on a voyage from Liverpool to South Georgia with coal and empty oil drums. She was abandoned at sea with the loss of five lives. Ems (ship) The Ems was a 1,829 ton, iron sailing ship with a length of ,