Plot+Summary

Ishmael, a sailor and a former school teacher, decides to go whaling. While sleeping at a whaler's inn, he meets a savage named Queequeg, and the two readily become friends. The following day they decide to enlist upon the same ship. The ship that they end up choosing is the //Pequod//, captained by the gruff old sailor Ahab, who has recently had his right leg taken from him by a whale. Soon enough, the ship leaves port and travels the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans in search of whales.

The whaling is generally good, and along the way they meet several other whaling ships, each of which is questioned fiercely by Ahab for information regarding Moby Dick. As the novel progresses, the clearer it becomes that the real purpose that Ahab set out on this voyage is not to harvest whales for profit, but to hunt down the great white whale Moby Dick. Eventually the //Pequod// happens upon Moby Dick, and a grand chase is soon underway. The battle between the whale and the crew rages on for three days, before Captain Ahab is caught in his own harpoon rope and killed, and Moby Dick destroys the //Pequod//. The only survivor is Ishmael, the narrator.