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
Anti-whaling November 11 by cheering crowds. Later, on November 15, the ship finally arrived to Amsterdam, her base. In 1981, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party sponsored a motion long supported by organized environmental lobbying to compel Spain's IWC delegates to vote for a moratorium and immediate halt to whaling. The motion passed on December 16 of the same year with an overwhelming majority. In 1979 the influence of environmentalists was realized in the membership of the International Whaling Commission through the nation of Seychelles. Dr. Sidney Holt, a well known marine biologist and former IWC scientific committee member (one of the