Moby-Dick

"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale."

Set in

• ★
  New Bedford · United States

  whaling port departure
  ★ primary
• ★
  Spouter-Inn, New Bedford · United States

  Ishmael's waterfront lodging house in New Bedford where he first meets Queequeg
  ★ primary
• ★
  Cape of Good Hope · South Africa

  The Pequod rounds the Cape of Good Hope en route from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean
  ★ primary
• ★
  Galápagos Islands · Ecuador

  The 'Encantadas' (Enchanted Isles) that the Pequod passes, a setting Melville also devoted a standalone sketch cycle to
  ★ primary
• ★
  Japan whaling grounds · Japan

  The 'Japanese cruising grounds' off Japan where the Pequod finally encounters Moby Dick and the climax unfolds
  ★ primary
• Nantucket · United States

  Pequod sails from Nantucket