Moby-Dick

Late Consumptive Usher

Also known as Usher

A threadbare former grammar-school usher who supplied the etymology section and devoted himself to dusting old grammars.

Sub-Sub-Librarian

Also known as Sub-Sub

A poor, painstaking compiler of whale extracts who searched books and street stalls for references to whales.

Ishmael

The first-person narrator and Pequod sailor, who joins Ahab’s hunt despite fearing it. He survives the shipwreck by floating on Queequeg’s coffin life-buoy and is rescued by the Rachel.

Cato

A historical figure Ishmael cites as an example of someone who chose suicide by falling on his sword.

Gabriel

An archangel mentioned in a fanciful passage about the heavens making room for the Sub-Subs.

Michael

An archangel mentioned in a fanciful passage about the heavens making room for the Sub-Subs.

Raphael

An archangel mentioned in a fanciful passage about the heavens making room for the Sub-Subs.

Jonah

The biblical prophet whose story appears in whale extracts and Father Mapple’s sermon; Ishmael also discusses his story in relation to whaling and the whale.

Narcissus

The mythological figure whose story Ishmael uses to reflect on humanity’s attraction to the sea and life’s image.

Peter Coffin

Also known as the landlord

Landlord of the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford; he arranges Ishmael’s lodging and recommends his cousin Hosea Hussey’s inn.

Lazarus

A destitute man in Ishmael’s meditation on poverty, stranded outside the wealthy Dives’s door.

Dives

A wealthy figure in Ishmael’s meditation on poverty, contrasted with Lazarus.

Nathan Swain

A whaleman mentioned at the Spouter-Inn as the killer of fifteen whales in one day.

Queequeg

Also known as the harpooneer · Quohog · Hedgehog

A South Seas harpooneer, prince from Rokovoko, and Ishmael’s close friend and Pequod shipmate. He makes a coffin-canoe that becomes a life-buoy, but he is aboard the sinking Pequod and is presumed dead.

Sal

Peter Coffin’s wife, mentioned in his story about their large bed and children.

Sam

A child of Peter Coffin and Sal, mentioned in the landlord’s story about the family sharing a bed.

Little Johnny

Also known as Johnny

A child of Peter Coffin and Sal, mentioned in the landlord’s story about the family sharing a bed.

Bulkington

A tall, strong sailor from the Grampus, first seen at the Spouter-Inn; he later serves at the Pequod’s helm after a four-year voyage.

Ishmael’s stepmother

Also known as his stepmother

The conscientious woman who sent Ishmael to bed after childhood mischief and refused his plea for a slippering instead.

Ishmael’s mother

Also known as his mother

Mentioned in Ishmael’s childhood recollection as the person who dragged him from a chimney and sent him to bed.

Ledyard

A New England traveller Ishmael cites as an example of someone lacking social assurance despite seeing the world.

Mungo Park

A Scottish traveller Ishmael cites as an example of someone lacking social assurance despite seeing the world.

John Talbot

An eighteen-year-old whaleman lost overboard near the Isle of Desolation; his sister erected a chapel tablet in his memory.

Robert Long

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Willis Ellery

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Nathan Coleman

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Walter Canny

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Seth Macy

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Samuel Gleig

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew, towed out of sight by a whale and commemorated on a chapel tablet.

Captain Ezekiel Hardy

Also known as Ezekiel Hardy

A whaling captain killed in his boat by a sperm whale off Japan; his widow erected a chapel tablet in his memory.

Father Mapple

Also known as the chaplain

A former sailor and harpooneer who became a beloved whalemen’s chaplain and preaches on Jonah, repentance, and God’s calling.

General Washington

Also known as George Washington

A historical figure whose head in popular busts Ishmael says resembles Queequeg’s shaved head.

Queequeg’s father

Also known as the King · the High Chief

King and High Chief of Rokovoko, and Queequeg’s father. He held a feast after a battle in which enemy dead were cooked and eaten.

Queequeg’s uncle

Also known as the High Priest

Queequeg’s uncle, who holds the office of High Priest in Rokovoko.

Queequeg’s maternal aunts

Also known as his aunts

Queequeg’s aunts on his mother’s side, described as wives of unconquerable warriors.

Queequeg’s sister

Also known as the princess

Queequeg’s younger sister, a princess whose wedding feast he recounts; she had just turned ten at the time.

Queequeg’s mother

Also known as his mother

Mentioned as the parent through whom Queequeg is related to aunts who were warriors’ wives.

The Sag Harbor ship’s captain

Also known as the captain

Captain of the ship that visited Rokovoko and eventually let Queequeg aboard after he risked his life to reach Christian lands.

The grand merchant ship’s commander

Also known as the Captain

A punctilious sea captain at Queequeg’s sister’s wedding feast who mistakes a ceremonial bowl for a finger bowl.

The Moss’s captain

Also known as the Captain

Gaunt captain of the Nantucket packet schooner Moss; he rebukes Queequeg, then apologizes after Queequeg rescues a passenger.

The bumpkin

Also known as the greenhorn · the poor fellow

A young passenger on the Moss who mocks Queequeg, is tossed into the air by him, then swept overboard and rescued by him.

The infant Indian

Also known as the poor little Indian

A child in a traditional story about Nantucket’s settlement, carried off by an eagle; the child’s parents follow in canoes and find the remains.

Hosea Hussey

Also known as Cousin Hosea · Mr. Hussey

Peter Coffin’s cousin and proprietor of Nantucket’s Try Pots inn, known for chowders; he owns a brindled cow that eats fish remnants.

Mrs. Hussey

Also known as Mistress Hussey · the landlady

Hosea Hussey’s wife, who runs the Try Pots while he is away. She serves chowder and takes Queequeg’s harpoon after recalling a boarder killed by his own.

The man in the purple shirt

An unnamed man scolded by Mrs. Hussey outside the Try Pots.

Young Stiggs

Also known as Stiggs

A whaleman who returned from a disastrous voyage and was found dead at the Try Pots, killed by his own harpoon.

Yojo

Also known as Queequeg’s god

Queequeg’s black wooden god, whom he consults and honors through fasting and ritual. Yojo directs him to leave the choice of ship to Ishmael.

Captain Peleg

Also known as Peleg

Retired whaleman, former Pequod chief mate, and one of its principal owners and agents. He hires Ishmael and Queequeg and describes Ahab as good but moody.

Captain Ahab

Also known as Ahab · Old Thunder

The Pequod’s formidable, moody captain, who lost a leg to Moby Dick and pursues the whale for revenge. On the third day of the chase, the whale sinks the Pequod; Ahab is dragged from his boat by the harpoon-line and drowned.

Captain Bildad

Also known as Bildad

Retired whaleman, Quaker, and principal Pequod owner. Pious but hard-hearted in business, he pilots the ship out of port and is reluctant to leave Ahab.

Deacon Deuteronomy Coleman

Also known as Deacon Deuteronomy

A church deacon whose meeting-house is mentioned in a dispute over whether Queequeg belongs to a Christian congregation.

Nat Swaine

Also known as young Nat Swaine

A once-renowned Nantucket and Vineyard boat-header who became too fearful of spiritual consequences to pursue whales boldly.

Elijah

Also known as the stranger · the ragged old sailor

A shabby, smallpox-scarred sailor who warns Ishmael and Queequeg about the Pequod and hints at strange events involving Ahab.

Captain Bildad’s sister

Also known as Charity · Aunt Charity

A kindhearted, indefatigable Quakeress who helps provision the Pequod and owns a small share in it. She is Stubb’s sister-in-law.

Stubb

Also known as the second mate

The Pequod’s good-humored, easygoing second mate from Cape Cod, and Captain Bildad’s brother-in-law. Moby Dick destroys his boat twice during the final chase, but Stubb is rescued; he dies when the Pequod sinks.

The chamber-maid

An unnamed Try Pots servant who tells Ishmael that Queequeg’s room has remained locked and silent.

Mrs. Hussey’s little black boy

Also known as the little black boy

An unnamed child whom Mrs. Hussey is scolding when Ishmael reports that Queequeg may be ill.

Snarles the Painter

A Nantucket painter whom Mrs. Hussey sends for to make a warning sign for the Try Pots.

The old rigger

Also known as the sleeper

An unnamed, exhausted Pequod rigger whom Ishmael and Queequeg find asleep in the forecastle before sailing.

Starbuck

Also known as Mr. Starbuck · the chief mate

The Pequod’s conscientious chief mate, a Nantucketer and Quaker by descent, with a wife and child at Cape Cod. He challenges Ahab’s hunt and pleads with him to stop, but remains aboard and drowns when the ship sinks.

Starbuck’s wife

Also known as Starbuck’s young Cape wife

Starbuck’s wife, who lives at Cape Cod and is remembered by him during the voyage.

Starbuck’s child

Also known as Starbuck’s young child

Starbuck’s child at Cape Cod, remembered by him during the voyage.

Starbuck’s father

Also known as his father

Mentioned as a man whose fate at sea weighs on Starbuck; what happened to him is unspecified.

Starbuck’s brother

Also known as his brother

Starbuck’s brother, whose torn limbs Starbuck wonders about after his disappearance at sea.

The steward

Also known as Dough-Boy

The Pequod’s nervous, pale-faced steward, serving the cabin and harpooneers. He is the son of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse.

The third mate

Also known as King-Post · Flask · Mr. Flask

Flask, the Pequod’s short, stout third mate from Vineyard, is pugnacious and dismissive of whales’ danger and majesty. He is swept from his boat in the final chase and drowns when the Pequod sinks.

Tashtego

A Gay-Head Indian harpooneer and Stubb’s boat-steerer, descended from Indigenous Martha’s Vineyard hunters. While nailing the flag to the Pequod’s sinking mast, he goes down with the ship.

Daggoo

Also known as Ahasuerus Daggoo

A gigantic African harpooneer who joined a whaler as a youth. He is Flask’s boat-steerer and drowns with the Pequod’s crew.

Black Little Pip

Also known as Little Pip · Pip · Pippin

A Black boy from Alabama serving aboard the Pequod. After being left alone at sea and rescued, he is said to have become mentally altered; his strange perceptions unsettle his shipmates.

The old Gay-Head Indian

Also known as Tashtego’s senior

An unnamed older Indigenous crewman who says Ahab acquired his lightning-like brand in an elemental struggle at sea.

The grey Manxman

Also known as the old Manxman

An unnamed, sepulchral sailor on his first voyage from Nantucket. He says Ahab bears a birthmark from crown to sole and is credited with uncanny discernment.

The silent steersman

An unnamed Pequod helmsman who watches the cabin-scuttle during night watches as Ahab comes on deck.

The badger-haired old merman

Also known as Mr. Humpback · the old fellow

A humpbacked merman in Stubb’s dream who says Ahab’s kick is an honor and warns against kicking back.

Captain Scoresby

Also known as Scoresby

A professional harpooneer and whaleman cited as an authority on whales, especially the Greenland or right whale.

Surgeon Beale

Also known as Beale

A surgeon on English South-Sea whale-ships whose book is cited as a useful account of the living sperm whale.

Bennett

A surgeon on English South-Sea whale-ships whose book is cited alongside Beale’s.

Captain James Cook

Also known as Cook

An explorer whom Ishmael compares with Nantucket whaling captains, arguing whalemen faced dangers beyond those Cook would risk.

George Vancouver

Also known as Vancouver

An explorer whose published adventures Ishmael contrasts with Nantucket whalemen’s unrecorded experiences.

Adam Johann von Krusenstern

Also known as Krusenstern

An explorer whom Ishmael says Nantucket whaling captains equaled or surpassed in courage and experience.

John De Witt

Also known as De Witt

A Dutch statesman whose era is mentioned in connection with admirals of Dutch whaling fleets.

Louis XVI

The French king who, Ishmael says, funded whaling ships from Dunkirk and invited Nantucket families there.

Edmund Burke

Also known as Burke

A statesman whom Ishmael cites as a public eulogist of whaling in Parliament.

Benjamin Franklin

Also known as Franklin

A historical figure Ishmael connects to Nantucket whalemen through his grandmother Mary Folger.

Mary Morrel

Also known as Mary Folger

Benjamin Franklin’s grandmother, an early Nantucket settler and ancestress of Folgers and harpooneers.

Alfred the Great

Also known as Alfred

The king Ishmael credits with recording a whaling voyage narrative by the Norwegian whale-hunter Other.

Other

A Norwegian whale-hunter whose whaling voyage account was recorded by Alfred the Great.

Aristotle

An ancient Greek philosopher named among writers who wrote about whales.

Pliny

An ancient Roman writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Aldrovandi

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Sir Thomas Browne

A writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Gesner

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Ray

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Carl Linnaeus

Also known as Linnæus

A naturalist whose classification and arguments about whales are discussed by Ishmael.

Rondeletius

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Willoughby

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Green

A writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Artedi

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Sibbald

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Brisson

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Marten

A writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Lacépède

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Bonneterre

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Desmarest

A naturalist named among writers on whales.

Baron Cuvier

Also known as Georges Cuvier · Cuvier

A zoologist and anatomist whose writings on whales are cited by Ishmael.

Frederick Cuvier

A zoologist and anatomist named among writers on whales.

John Hunter

An anatomist whose writings on whales are cited by Ishmael.

Richard Owen

Also known as Owen

A naturalist named among whale writers; Ishmael says only those listed after Owen had seen living whales.

J. Ross Browne

A writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Olmstead

A writer named among those who wrote about whales.

Reverend T. Cheever

Also known as Rev. T. Cheever

A clergyman named among those who wrote about whales.

Miriam Coffin

A person identified by a book title on whales, named among writers on the subject.

The Dutch discoverer of Australia

Also known as the Dutchman

An unnamed Dutchman credited with the first, mistaken discovery of Australia.

The Roman general

An unnamed Roman commander whose triumphal procession displayed whale bones from the Syrian coast.

The great captain of antiquity

An unnamed ancient commander whom Ishmael contrasts with a whaleman who captured hundreds of whales.

Charley Coffin

A person Ishmael cites for the claim that the narwhal uses its tusk to pierce ice; the claim is left uncertain.

Black Letter

An old author cited for a story that Sir Martin Frobisher gave a narwhal tusk to Queen Elizabeth.

Sir Martin Frobisher

Also known as Frobisher

An explorer said by Black Letter to have presented Queen Elizabeth with a narwhal tusk.

Queen Elizabeth

Also known as Queen Bess · her highness

The queen who, according to Black Letter, received a narwhal tusk from Sir Martin Frobisher.

The Earl of Leicester

An Irish author says he gave Queen Elizabeth a horn from a land animal of the unicorn kind.

Napoleon

A historical figure whose statue atop the Vendôme Column is Ishmael’s example of a lifeless masthead lookout.

Louis Philippe

A ruler mentioned as one of the men who might rule beneath Napoleon’s statue.

Louis Blanc

A political figure mentioned as one of the men who might rule beneath Napoleon’s statue.

Admiral Nelson

Also known as Nelson

A British admiral whose statue stands atop a column in Trafalgar Square.

Obed Macy

Also known as Obed

Nantucket’s historian, cited for the island’s early custom of erecting coastal whale-lookout spars.

Saint Stylites

Also known as Saint Simeon Stylites

An ancient Christian hermit who lived atop a desert pillar and died at his post; Ishmael compares him to a masthead lookout.

Captain Sleet

Also known as Sleet

A Greenland whaling captain who describes a protective crow’s-nest he invented and named after himself.

Cranmer

Also known as Thomas Cranmer

A figure whose ashes Ishmael invokes in a comparison about an absent-minded lookout’s spirit becoming part of every shore.

The first Nantucket sailor

Also known as 1st Nantucket Sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who leads a comic whaling song during the midnight watch.

The second Nantucket sailor

Also known as 2nd Nantucket Sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who asks Pip to strike the bell and rouses the watch.

The Dutch sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who jokes about the officers sleeping through the crew’s singing.

The French sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who urges Pip and others to dance during the midnight watch.

The Iceland sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who says he is used to ice floors and declines to dance on deck.

The Maltese sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who calls for dancing partners and makes bawdy remarks.

The Sicilian sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who joins bawdy talk, exchanges insults with Tashtego, and warns Ahab when the hawk steals his hat.

The Long-Island sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who encourages the others to dance.

The Azore sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who brings Pip a tambourine and dances.

The China sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who tells Pip to beat his teeth like a rattle.

The Lascar sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who interprets the gathering storm through Hindu religious imagery.

The Tahitan sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who remembers Tahiti’s dancing and helps Ahab heave the log.

The Portuguese sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who calls attention to the rising wind and prepares to reef.

The Danish sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who praises the mate’s handling of the ship in a storm.

The third Nantucket sailor

Also known as 3d Nantucket Sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who asks Tashtego for tobacco during the watch.

The fourth Nantucket sailor

Also known as 4th Nantucket Sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who says Ahab ordered the mate to attack squalls with the ship.

The English sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who praises Ahab and supports the hunt for Moby Dick.

The Spanish sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor whose racist taunt provokes a fight with Daggoo during a storm.

The St. Jago’s sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who comments on the quarrel between Daggoo and the Spanish sailor.

The Belfast sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who cheers on the fight between Daggoo and the Spanish sailor.

The old Manx sailor

Also known as Old Manx Sailor · the old Manxman

An unnamed Pequod sailor who speaks darkly about death and fate, interprets signs, warns that the log-line is worn, and hears drowned men in the crew’s cries.

Moby Dick

Also known as the White Whale · the white whale

A notorious white sperm whale that took Ahab’s leg and is the target of his revenge. He kills Ahab and sinks the Pequod, but his own fate is not stated.

Olassen

A book naturalist cited with Povelson for claims that sperm whales are ferocious and thirst for human blood.

Povelson

A book naturalist cited with Olassen for claims that sperm whales are ferocious and thirst for human blood.

Rinaldo Rinaldini

A figure used as a comparison for the dangerous prestige surrounding famous whales.

Timor Tom

A famous whale scarred like an iceberg, long seen in the straits of Timor and known for his spout off Ombay.

New Zealand Jack

A famous whale feared by cruisers near New Zealand.

Morquan

A famous whale known as the King of Japan, whose spout was said to resemble a white cross in the sky.

Don Miguel

A Chilean whale marked with hieroglyphic-like patterns; after causing havoc among whaling boats, he was hunted and killed.

New Zealand Tom

A famous whale that caused havoc among whaling boats before being hunted and killed.

Captain Butler

A captain of old who set out through the Narragansett Woods intending to capture Annawon.

Annawon

A notorious murderous warrior, described as the headmost warrior of Indigenous King Philip, whom Captain Butler sought to capture.

Captain Pollard

Also known as Pollard

Captain of the Nantucket ship Essex when a sperm whale sank it in 1820. He later lost another ship, gave up the sea, and lived in Nantucket.

Owen Chace

Also known as Chace

Chief mate of the Essex during its destruction by a whale and author of an account; Ishmael has met and spoken with him.

Owen Chace’s son

Also known as Chace’s son

The son of Owen Chace, whom Ishmael says he has spoken with.

Commodore J——

Also known as the Commodore

An unnamed American naval commodore who doubted whales’ strength until a sperm whale badly struck his sloop-of-war.

Saul of Tarsus

Also known as Saul

The biblical figure whose conversion Ishmael compares to the Commodore’s frightening encounter with a whale.

Captain Langsdorff

Also known as Langsdorff

A captain whose account describes a whale lifting a ship without damaging it; he served on Krusenstern’s Discovery Expedition.

Captain D’Wolf

Also known as D’Wolf

A New England captain whose ship was struck by a whale in Langsdorff’s account; Ishmael’s uncle, he later confirmed it to him.

Lionel Wafer

Also known as Wafer

A voyager and associate of Dampier, cited for an account of a ship jolted at sea, which Ishmael suspects a whale struck.

William Dampier

Also known as Dampier

An explorer whose old associate Lionel Wafer recounts a ship being struck at sea.

Captain Davis

The captain aboard Lionel Wafer’s ship, thrown from his cabin by a violent shock at sea.

Procopius

A sixth-century Christian magistrate and historian who recorded a sea monster destroying ships in the Propontis for over fifty years.

Justinian

The Roman emperor during Procopius’s lifetime.

Belisarius

A general during the reign of Justinian.

Commodore Davis

A British naval commodore said to have found a sperm whale skeleton on the Barbary coast.

Lieutenant Maury

Also known as Maury

An officer of the National Observatory whose 1851 circular reports a chart of whale sightings and whaling days by ocean district.

Cabaco

A Cholo sailor in the Pequod’s middle watch who passes water buckets with Archy and dismisses his report of noises below.

Archy

A Pequod sailor stationed near the after-hatches during the middle watch; he suspects someone unseen is in the after-hold.

Rokovoko’s old Quakeress

Also known as the old Quakeress

An unnamed woman whose knitting needles Archy jokingly claims to have heard from far out at sea.

Fedallah

Also known as the white-turbaned old man · the old Oriental

A mysterious Parsee who joins Ahab’s private boat crew and seems tied to Ahab’s fortunes. On the third day he is found dead, lashed to Moby Dick’s back by the tangled lines.

Fedallah’s four companions

Also known as the yellow boys · the subordinate phantoms · Ahab’s crew

Four unnamed, yellow-complexioned men from the Manila region who secretly join Ahab’s private boat crew with Fedallah.

Pedro

Also known as Don Pedro

A young Spanish gentleman in Ishmael’s audience at Lima’s Golden Inn who interjects questions during the Town-Ho story.

Sebastian

Also known as Don Sebastian

A young Spanish gentleman in Ishmael’s audience at the Golden Inn who asks about Steelkilt and Buffalo.

The Town-Ho’s captain

Also known as the captain

Captain of the Nantucket whaler Town-Ho, which springs a leak in the Pacific; he is unaware of the secret conflict between Radney and Steelkilt.

Radney

Also known as the mate · Mr. Radney · old Rad

The Town-Ho’s Vineyarder chief mate and part owner, whose domineering treatment of Steelkilt provokes conflict. Moby Dick kills him during a whale chase.

Steelkilt

Also known as the Lakeman

A tall, proud Lake Erie sailor from Buffalo who leads a Town-Ho pump gang. After resisting Radney’s abuse, he survives imprisonment and mutiny, then exacts revenge when Moby Dick kills Radney.

The Town-Ho’s three confederate white seamen

Also known as the three confederate white seamen

Three unnamed white Town-Ho sailors who know the secret story; one tells Tashtego, who reveals it while asleep.

The first Canaller

Also known as one of Steelkilt’s two Canaller comrades

An unnamed Erie Canal boatman and Town-Ho sailor who joins Steelkilt’s resistance and agrees to help him break out of the forecastle.

The second Canaller

Also known as one of Steelkilt’s two Canaller comrades

An unnamed Erie Canal boatman and Town-Ho sailor who joins Steelkilt’s resistance and agrees to help him break out of the forecastle.

The Limean gentleman

Also known as another of the company

An unnamed member of Ishmael’s Lima audience who thanks the sailor for sparing present-day Lima in his comparison, then jokes about its reputation for corruption.

The stupid Teneriffe man

Also known as the Teneriffe man

An unnamed Town-Ho sailor who involuntarily calls out Moby Dick’s appearance, breaking the crew’s agreement not to signal whales.

Radney’s widow

Also known as the widow of Radney

Radney’s unnamed widow, who lives on Nantucket and still dreams of the white whale that killed him.

The priest

Also known as the venerable priest

An unnamed Lima priest brought by Don Sebastian with a copy of the Holy Evangelists so Ishmael can swear to his story.

The tub oarsman

An unnamed member of Stubb’s whaleboat crew who sits by the tub and wets the running line with seawater.

The bowsman

An unnamed whaleboat crewman who rows at the bow and receives Stubb’s commands during a whale chase.

Old Fleece

Also known as Fleece · the cook · the old black

An elderly Black cook aboard the Pequod, nearly a hundred years old by his account and born on a ferry crossing the Roanoke. Stubb makes him preach to the sharks and teases him while eating whale steak.

The attending harpooneer

An unnamed Pequod harpooneer who uses a boarding-sword to cut and manage the whale blubber during the flensing.

The Jeroboam’s captain

Also known as Captain Mayhew · Mayhew

Captain of the Nantucket whaler Jeroboam, who keeps his boat at a distance from the Pequod because an epidemic is aboard. He recounts the loss of his chief mate, Harry Macey, to Moby Dick.

Gabriel of the Jeroboam

Also known as Gabriel · the archangel

A delusional Jeroboam sailor formerly among the Neskyeuna Shakers who claims to be the archangel Gabriel and exerts fanatical influence over the crew. He calls Moby Dick a Shaker god and his warnings gain power after the whale kills Macey.

Macey

Also known as Harry Macey · Mr. Harry Macey · the chief mate · the mate

Chief mate of the Jeroboam and husband of the letter-writer whose message Ahab tries to deliver. Moby Dick strikes him into the sea during an attack, and he drowns.

The Neskyeuna Shakers’ prophet

Also known as the prophet

An unnamed prophet among the Neskyeuna Shakers whose role Gabriel once held before leaving for Nantucket.

St. Paul

Also known as Paul

The biblical apostle whom Ahab invokes while wishing for a favorable breeze.

The biblical Elijah

Also known as Elijah

The prophet invoked in Stubb’s joke about a coach and four carrying Fleece to heaven.

The Jeroboam’s letter-writer

Also known as Macey’s wife

Harry Macey’s unnamed wife, whose damp, moldy letter to him is carried by the Pequod and rejected by Gabriel.

Derick De Deer

Also known as Captain Derick De Deer · the Yarman · the German

Master of the Bremen whaler Jungfrau. He eagerly races the Pequod’s boats to a wounded whale, but his boat is spilled when the harpooneers strike.

The Jungfrau’s harpooneer

Also known as the German harpooneer

An unnamed harpooneer aboard the Jungfrau who stands to dart at the wounded whale before Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo strike first.

The Jungfrau’s midship oarsman

Also known as the clumsy lubber

An unnamed oarsman in Derick De Deer’s boat whose oar blade catches a crab, nearly capsizing the boat and costing it the lead.

The wounded old sperm whale

Also known as the old whale · the whale

An aged, blind sperm whale with one fin missing and an old stone lance and corroded harpoon embedded in its flesh. The Pequod’s boats kill it after a chase, and its sinking carcass nearly capsizes the ship.

Perseus

A son of Jupiter and legendary first whaleman in Ishmael’s account. He harpoons the sea monster carrying off Andromeda, rescues her, and marries her.

Andromeda

A king’s daughter whom Perseus rescues from a sea monster and marries.

The monster slain by Perseus

Also known as Leviathan

The legendary sea monster said to have carried off Andromeda; Ishmael identifies it as a whale harpooned by Perseus.

St. George

Also known as Saint George

The saint and legendary dragon-slayer whom Ishmael recasts as a whaleman who battled a whale.

Dagon

A Philistine idol whose horse’s head and hands fell away before the Ark of Israel, leaving a fish-like stump.

Hercules

The Greek demigod whom Ishmael claims as an involuntary whaleman because a whale swallowed and later expelled him.

Vishnoo

Also known as Vishnu

A Hindu god who, in the Shaster story Ishmael recounts, incarnates as a whale and retrieves the Vedas from the depths.

Brahma

The Hindu God of Gods who, in the Shaster story Ishmael recounts, gives birth to Vishnoo to oversee the world’s recreation.

The old Sag-Harbor whaleman

Also known as Sag-Harbor

An unnamed whaleman who doubts the historical story of Jonah and the whale, citing anatomical and geographical objections.

Bishop Jebb

Also known as the Bishop

A bishop whose proposed explanation is that Jonah was lodged in a whale’s mouth rather than its belly.

The German exegetist

An unnamed German commentator who proposes that Jonah took refuge in the floating body of a dead whale.

The French soldiers

Unnamed soldiers in the Russian campaign, mentioned as having turned dead horses into shelters.

The continental commentators

Unnamed commentators who suggest that Jonah escaped to a nearby ship with a whale figurehead.

The Portuguese Catholic priest

An unnamed priest who proposed that Jonah travelled to Nineveh via the Cape of Good Hope, treating the route as a magnification of the miracle.

Bartholomew Diaz

Also known as Diaz

The reputed discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, whose historical credit Ishmael says would be displaced by a theory about Jonah’s route.

The English traveller

An unnamed traveller cited in Harris’s Voyages for reporting a Turkish mosque in honor of Jonah.

The Turks

A people mentioned as devout believers in the historical story of Jonah; no individual is identified.

Plato

A philosopher whom Ishmael names among profound beings whose deep thoughts supposedly produce a visible vapor.

Pyrrho

A philosopher whom Ishmael names among profound beings whose deep thoughts supposedly produce a visible vapor.

Jupiter

A god named among profound beings in Ishmael’s fanciful analogy about thought producing vapor.

Dante

A poet whom Ishmael names among profound beings whose deep thoughts supposedly produce a visible vapor.

Eckerman

Also known as Johann Peter Eckermann

A devoted admirer who, Ishmael says, lifted the linen sheet from Goethe’s corpse and was struck by his massive chest.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also known as Goethe

A poet and thinker whose body Ishmael describes through Eckerman’s account as massively built.

Michelangelo

Also known as Angelo

An artist whom Ishmael cites for the robust human form he gives God the Father.

Darmonodes’ elephant

An elephant in a story Ishmael recounts, said to frequent a flower market, offer nosegays to young women, and caress them with its trunk.

King Juba

Also known as Juba

An ancient king whom Ishmael cites for the claim that military elephants greeted morning with uplifted trunks.

Ptolemy Philopater

An ancient ruler whom Ishmael cites as having testified about the African elephant.

The Malayan pirates

Also known as the Malays · pirates

A pursuing band of Malay corsairs whose proas chase the Pequod through the Straits of Sunda.

The injured whale in the herd

Also known as the wounded whale

A sperm whale whose tail tendon is cut and whose harpoon-line becomes entangled with a cutting-spade, causing it to lash and wound other whales.

King Porus

Also known as Porus

An Indian king whose elephants, in battle with Alexander, are compared to the panicked whales.

Alexander

Also known as Alexander the Great

The conqueror whose Indian battle against King Porus is invoked in a comparison with the frightened whale herd.

Arnold

A mounted desperado at the Battle of Saratoga, used as a comparison for the wounded whale’s frantic charge.

Daniel Boone

A frontiersman invoked as a comparison for an aged solitary sperm whale.

Vidocq

Also known as Eugène François Vidocq

A Frenchman whose memoirs are mentioned in a speculation about the origin of the term “schoolmaster” for a harem’s bull whale.

Mr. Erskine

Also known as Erskine

Counsel for the defendants in a whale-property case; he argues that the whale and a woman in an earlier marital dispute illustrate the same ownership principles.

Lord Ellenborough

The judge in a case over an abandoned whaleboat, whale, harpoons, and line. He awards the boat to its original crew but the whale and attached gear to the later captors.

The gentleman in the crim. con. case

Also known as the husband

An unnamed gentleman who abandoned his wife at sea after struggling with her conduct, then sued to recover her; Erskine uses his case as an analogy about ownership.

The lady in the crim. con. case

Also known as the wife

An unnamed woman abandoned by her husband and later re-harpooned by another gentleman; Erskine’s argument treats her as analogous to a loose-fish.

The subsequent gentleman

An unnamed man who re-harpoons the abandoned wife in Erskine’s illustrative legal case.

Mordecai

Also known as the broker

A broker whom Ishmael invokes as an example of someone extracting a ruinous discount from a bankrupt borrower.

Woebegone

Also known as the bankrupt

A bankrupt whose family faces starvation; Ishmael cites the ruinous loan discount Mordecai demands from him.

The Archbishop of Savesoul

Also known as Savesoul

A fictional archbishop whose large income, taken from poor laborers, is presented by Ishmael as a Fast-Fish.

The Duke of Dunder

A fictional duke whose hereditary towns and hamlets are cited by Ishmael as Fast-Fish.

John Bull

A personification of England, described as a harpooneer who treats Ireland as a Fast-Fish.

Brother Jonathan

A personification of the United States, described as an apostolic lancer who treats Texas as a Fast-Fish.

Columbus

Also known as Christopher Columbus

The explorer who, in Ishmael’s analogy, marked America as a loose-fish for the Spanish monarchs in 1492.

The Czar

The Russian ruler invoked in Ishmael’s question about Poland as a loose-fish.

The Turk

A ruler invoked in Ishmael’s question about Greece as a loose-fish.

The King

Also known as the Sovereign

The English monarch who, under law, receives the head of whales caught on the coast.

The Queen

The English queen who, under law, receives the tail of whales caught on the coast.

The Lord Warden

The crown-appointed official overseeing the Cinque Ports, whose delegated claim to royal emoluments is used to seize a whale caught by local mariners.

The Duke of Wellington

Also known as the Duke · his Grace

The Duke who receives the proceeds from a whale seized under the Lord Warden’s claim. He rebuffs a clergyman who asks him to consider the mariners’ loss.

The honest mariner who speaks

Also known as one of the mariners

An unnamed member of the Cinque Ports whaling crew who questions the official seizing their whale and says he hoped to help his bed-ridden mother with his share.

The honest clergyman

Also known as the reverend gentleman

An unnamed clergyman who writes to the Duke of Wellington asking him to reconsider the seizure of the mariners’ whale.

Plowdon

A legal writer cited for the claim that a whale belongs to the King and Queen because of its superior excellence.

William Prynne

An old King’s Bench author whose explanation for the Queen’s share of a royal whale is that its tail supplies whalebone for her wardrobe.

Queen Maachah

Also known as Maachah

A biblical queen whose idol was kept in secret groves and later destroyed by her son, King Asa.

King Asa

Also known as Asa

The biblical king who deposed his mother, Queen Maachah, and destroyed her idol.

The Nantucket-born Captain Coffin

Also known as Captain Coffin

A Nantucket-born captain examined before the English House of Commons in 1791 about ambergris.

Fogo Von Slack

Also known as the learned Fogo Von Slack

The purported author of a great work on smells, cited as the source for the name Smeerenberg.

The Bouton de Rose’s chief mate

Also known as the Guernsey-man · the Guernseyman · the interpreter

A Guernsey sailor serving as chief mate aboard the French whaler Bouton de Rose. He and Stubb conspire to mislead their captain into cutting loose two low-value whales.

The Bouton de Rose’s captain

Also known as the Captain

A small, dark, delicate-looking first-voyage captain of the French whaler Bouton de Rose, formerly a Cologne manufacturer. He is persuaded by Stubb’s ruse to release two whales.

The tormented surgeon

Also known as the surgeon

An unnamed surgeon aboard the Bouton de Rose who protests the work on the foul-smelling whales and retreats to the captain’s cabin.

Pippin

Also known as Pip · Black Little Pip · Little Pip

A Pequod ship-keeper from Tolland County, Connecticut, originally known for his bright, cheerful nature. After being abandoned at sea and rescued, he is said to have become mentally altered and forms a strong attachment with Ahab.

Stubb’s after-oarsman

An unnamed member of Stubb’s boat crew who sprains his hand while working the ambergris whale, leading Pip to take his place temporarily.

Pythagoras

An ancient Greek philosopher whom Ishmael imagines having sailed with him along the Peruvian coast, as a green sailor whom he taught to splice a rope.

The mincer

An unnamed Pequod worker who wears a protective cassock made from the black skin of a sperm whale’s penis and minces blubber for the try-pots.

The old witch in Copenhagen

Also known as the old witch

An unnamed woman who, according to the old Manx sailor, taught him the signs and their marks two score years earlier.

The Samuel Enderby’s captain

Also known as Captain Boomer · the one-armed commander · the English Captain

A burly, good-natured English whaling captain whose arm was lost in an encounter with Moby Dick. He refuses to hunt the whale again.

Dr. Bunger

Also known as Bunger · Jack Bunger · the whale-surgeon · the ship’s surgeon

The Samuel Enderby’s surgeon and a former clergyman who claims to be a strict teetotaler, though Captain Boomer mocks this. He treated Boomer after Moby Dick tore his arm.

Mr. Mounttop

Also known as Mounttop

The Samuel Enderby’s first mate, whose boat Captain Boomer joined during the encounter with Moby Dick.

The Pequod’s carpenter

Also known as the carpenter · manmaker

An unnamed, unusually versatile and impassive ship’s carpenter, about sixty years old. He makes Queequeg’s coffin into a life-buoy and fashions Ahab’s replacement legs.

The blacksmith

Also known as Smut · Prometheus

An unnamed Pequod blacksmith ordered to forge the fittings for Ahab’s replacement leg; Ahab jokingly calls him Prometheus.

Tranquo

Also known as King Tranquo

The late king of Tranque, an Arsacidean ruler and Ishmael’s royal friend. He gathered curiosities at his villa, including a stranded sperm whale skeleton revered by local priests.

The priests of Tranque

Also known as the priests

Unnamed priests who tend the whale skeleton treated as sacred in King Tranquo’s temple and argue over its measurements.

Sir Clifford Constable

Also known as Sir Clifford

An English landowner who possesses an articulated sperm whale skeleton at Burton Constable.

Judge Creagh

An Alabama judge whose plantation yielded the fossil skeleton of an extinct whale later named Zeuglodon.

John Leo

Also known as the venerable John Leo · the old Barbary traveller

A Barbary traveller whose account describes an African temple built with whale bones and a rib associated with the story of Jonah.

Samuel Enderby

A London merchant, now deceased, after whom the Samuel Enderby whaler is named. He was the founder of the prominent Enderby whaling house.

Dr. Snodhead

Also known as Snodhead

A learned professor of Low Dutch and High German who translates a Dutch book about commerce and whaling for Ishmael.

Fitz Swackhammer

The purported author of an old Dutch volume on commerce and whaling, cited by Ishmael through Dr. Snodhead’s translation.

The departed prophet and seer of Queequeg’s island

Also known as the prophet and seer

A deceased prophet and seer of Queequeg’s island who tattooed a complete theory of the heavens and earth, and a mystical treatise on attaining truth, onto Queequeg’s body.

The Bachelor’s captain

Also known as the gay Bachelor’s commander

The cheerful captain of the Nantucket whaler Bachelor, which has filled its holds with oil and is sailing home. He invites Ahab aboard and says he does not believe in Moby Dick.

The Long Island sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who calls Queequeg’s coffin proof that he will die; later he is among the ship’s crew witnessing events.

Perth

Also known as the blacksmith

An old, stooped Pequod blacksmith who lost both feet to frostbite after ruin and alcoholism destroyed his family. He makes Ahab’s harpoon from horse-shoe stubs, which Ahab forges and the harpooneers’ blood tempers.

Captain Gardiner

Also known as the Rachel’s captain · the stranger captain

The Nantucket captain of the Rachel, who searches desperately for a missing whaleboat carrying two of his sons. The Rachel later rescues Ishmael while retracing that search.

Captain Gardiner’s elder son

Also known as one of the missing boys · his own boy

One of Captain Gardiner’s sons, a member of the missing Rachel whaleboat crew lost during a chase of Moby Dick.

Captain Gardiner’s younger son

Also known as the little lad · one of the missing boys

Captain Gardiner’s twelve-year-old son, who went whaling in another boat on the same voyage and was also lost at sea.

The lost Pequod masthead sailor

Also known as the first man of the Pequod that mounted the mast

An unnamed Pequod sailor who falls from the foremast while on lookout and drowns when the life-buoy fails to float.

The Delight’s captain

Also known as the hollow-cheeked captain · the Nantucketer

The captain of the whaling ship Delight, whose crew is devastated by Moby Dick. He buries one of five men who died in the encounter and warns Ahab that the whale cannot be killed.

Miriam

Also known as little Miriam

One of Ahab’s young daughters, mentioned as laughing and playing around him at home.

Martha

Also known as little Martha

One of Ahab’s young daughters, mentioned as laughing and playing around him at home.

Ahab’s wife

Also known as the young girl-wife · his wife

Ahab’s much younger wife, whom he married shortly before leaving for a long whaling voyage. He says his years at sea effectively left her a widow while he lived.

Ahab’s son

Also known as his boy · the boy

Ahab’s young son, who lives at home with his mother and expects his father to return from the sea.

The sea-hawk

Also known as the black hawk · the wild hawk

A black sea-hawk that snatches Ahab’s hat and later tears at the Pequod’s flag as the ship sinks, going down with it and Tashtego.

The three oarsmen thrown from Ahab’s boat

Also known as the three men

Three unnamed members of Ahab’s boat crew thrown into the sea during the final chase; one is Ishmael, who survives on Queequeg’s coffin life-buoy.