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 Japan whale populations in coastal Asia out of Japan's EEZ were collapsed by Japanese modern industrial whaling. For further information about status of whale species largely affected by Japanese whaling, see "Wildlife of China". There are 17 different whale species in the Antarctic and many species of whales migrate south to take advantage of food. This is the reason why most of whaling ships come to the Antarctica every year for hunting. Factory ships were not used by Japan until the 1930s. As whale catches diminished in coastal waters, Japan looked to Antarctica. Toyo Hogei K.K. purchased the Norwegian factory ship,