Moby Dick is a gigantic white sperm whale from Herman Melville's book of the same name. The book focused on the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, a sailor who had once been crippled while attempting to hunt the infamous whale, seeking revenge against the beast.
Overview[]
Moby Dick is described as the largest white whale ever witnessed by human eyes. Its exact dimensions are not given in the book, but it can be surmised that it surpassed 90 feet in length, the largest recorded size of white sperm whales in the real world. It sported a "pyramidical white hump" a wrinkled forehead, an abnormally shaped spout and a deformed jaw.
In the book, Moby Dick was responsible for sinking several ships and was regarded by sailors with fear and reverance. Several sailors had tried to hunt the whale, only to be killed or otherwise crippled. Captain Ahab, the book's central character, had once encountered the beast and lost his leg to it. After this terrible injury, Ahab swore revenge on the whale.
Aboard the whaling ship Pequod, Captain Ahab and his crew hunted Moby Dick relentlessly. As they sailed the seas, they encountered other vessels that had happened upon the white whale, hearing various accounts of their own meetings with the beast. Each tale warns of the futility of seeking vengeance against the whale, describing it as more a force of nature than an evil to mete out retribution against, but Ahab's obsession does not waiver despite all of these warnings.
In the end, the Pequod catches up to Moby Dick, but the vessel is destroyed and Ahab himself dies after piling upon the whale's hump himself. The rope attached to his harpoon becomes entangled around his neck and the maddened sea captain is dragged down to a watery grave as the creature dives. The only survivor of the Pequod is Ishmael, the narrator of the story.
Gallery[]
Images[]
