Moby-Dick or, The Whale characters

Appears from the start

The narrator, a thoughtful and restless young man who goes to sea whenever life on land wears him down. Drawn this time to whaling, he travels to New Bedford and then Nantucket to sign aboard a whaler. Observant, reflective, and given to long digressions on whales and the sea, he tells the story of the voyage as its lone witness, an ordinary sailor swept up in a captain's private purpose.

First appears in chapter 3

A skilled harpooneer from a distant island in the South Seas, the son of a chief, heavily tattooed and carrying a small carved idol and a razor-sharp harpoon. Forced to share a room with Ishmael at a crowded inn, he first alarms the narrator but proves calm, generous, and dignified. He and Ishmael swear a close friendship and ship aboard the same whaler together.

First appears in chapter 19

A ragged, wild-eyed stranger who accosts Ishmael and Queequeg on the Nantucket waterfront after they have signed on. He hints darkly at the ship's captain and at dangers awaiting the voyage, speaking in riddles that the two sailors brush aside, though his warnings linger uneasily.

First appears in chapter 26

The whaler's first mate, an earnest, upright Quaker from Nantucket. Brave and highly capable at his work, he is also prudent and reverent, unwilling to court danger for its own sake. Of all the officers he alone openly questions the captain's aims, and his conscience makes him the chief voice of caution aboard the ship.

First appears in chapter 27

The second mate, an easygoing, good-humored man from Cape Cod who faces the perils of whaling with a pipe clenched in his teeth and a joke ready. Fearless in the boats and fatalistic by temperament, he takes danger lightly and rarely lets anything trouble him for long.

First appears in chapter 27

The third mate, a short, sturdy, pugnacious man from Martha's Vineyard who treats whales as personal enemies and hunts them with blunt, cheerful aggression. He shows little of the awe others feel toward the great creatures, seeing them mainly as work to be done.

First appears in chapter 28

The captain of the whaler, a grim, imposing old seaman who keeps to his cabin as the voyage begins and appears on deck only after the ship is well out to sea. One of his legs has been replaced by a length of whale ivory, lost to a whale on an earlier voyage. Commanding and remote, he broods over some private purpose that seems to weigh on him far more than the ordinary business of the hunt.

First appears in chapter 36

A gigantic white sperm whale, notorious among whalers for its unusual pale color, immense size, cunning, and ferocity. It has maimed and killed men across many encounters, and it is the whale that tore off the captain's leg. To the captain it is the single object of an all-consuming hunt.

First appears in chapter 48

A mysterious Parsee, kept hidden aboard the ship until the first chase, when he emerges as the leader of the captain's own secret boat crew. Silent, shadowy, and seemingly devoted to the captain, he utters cryptic prophecies about how the captain will meet his end, and he moves through the voyage like an omen.

First appears in chapter 93

A young Black cabin boy, small and once cheerful, who is left alone in the open ocean after leaping from a whaleboat during a chase. The terror of being abandoned amid the vast sea unhinges his mind, and afterward he wanders the deck strangely altered, speaking in a dreamlike way. The captain, moved by him, keeps the boy close.