Pequod (Moby-Dick) the ship's affairs to these two." Peleg served as first mate under Ahab on "Pequod" before obtaining his own command, and is responsible for all her whalebone embellishments. The depiction of life aboard the ship was based on Melville's own experiences in whaling (specifically aboard the "Acushnet" in the 1840s) and thus can be taken in many ways as representative of mid-19th-century Nantucket whaling. 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,
Whaling in the Sea of Okhotsk were fitted out for as long as a fortnight, sailing about for bowheads during the day and camping on the beach at night. American and Russian crews sometimes camped together. Whereas boats were often sent inshore to look for bowheads, right whaling offshore was always ship-based, with three or four boats usually being lowered for whales. Boats after right whales were gone from their ship for hours (not days or weeks, like boats searching for bowheads sometimes were), and seldom ventured far from their ship. While bowheads could be caught at night, boats that were still fast to right whales