Captain Ahab Captain Ahab Captain Ahab is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851). He is the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship "Pequod". On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg, and he now wears a prosthetic leg made out of whalebone. The whaling voyage of the "Pequod" ends up as a hunt for revenge on the whale, as Ahab forces the crew members to support his fanatical mission. When Moby Dick is finally sighted, Ahab's hatred robs him of all caution, and the whale drags Ahab to the bottom of
Queequeg Queequeg Queequeg is a fictional character in the 1851 novel "Moby-Dick" by American author Herman Melville. The son of a South Sea chieftain who left home to explore the world, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by the narrator, Ishmael. The quick friendship and relationship of equality between the tattooed cannibal and the white sailor shows Melville's basic theme of shipboard democracy and racial diversity. Once aboard the whaling ship "Pequod" Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate Starbuck. At the end of the novel he "casts the runes", which say he will die. He therefore builds a coffin