Pequod (Moby-Dick) 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, after the initial chapters, takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans. Most of the characters in the novel are part of "Pequod"s crew, including the narrator Ishmael. Ishmael encounters the ship after he arrives in Nantucket and learns of three ships that are about to leave on three-year cruises. Tasked by
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