Moby Dick

Usher

Also known as Late Consumptive Usher

A consumptive grammar-school usher who supplies the etymology.

Sub-Sub-Librarian

Also known as Sub-Sub

A researcher who gathered whale extracts.

Gabriel

An archangel named in an extract.

Michael

An archangel named alongside Gabriel and Raphael.

Raphael

An archangel named alongside Gabriel and Michael.

Leviathan

A monstrous sea creature identified as a whale or sea serpent.

Jonah

The biblical prophet whose story is recounted.

Montaigne

An author quoted in the extracts.

Rabelais

An author quoted in the extracts.

King Henry

A king quoted in the extracts.

Hamlet

A character quoted in the extracts.

Spencer’s Talus

Also known as Talus

A figure invoked in a poem in the extracts.

Cato

A Roman figure Ishmael compares with himself.

Narcissus

A mythic figure whose story Ishmael uses to frame the sea’s symbolism.

Paul

A biblical figure cited by Ishmael and Father Mapple.

Dives

The rich man in a biblical parable.

Lazarus

The poor man in a biblical parable.

Ishmael

The narrator, a Pequod sailor and Queequeg’s friend, survives the wreck on Queequeg’s coffin life-buoy and is rescued by the Rachel.

Nathan Swain

A whaleman credited with killing fifteen whales in a day.

Peter Coffin

Also known as Coffin

The Spouter-Inn landlord who arranges Ishmael’s lodging.

Landlord of the Spouter-Inn

Also known as Landlord

The unnamed keeper of the Spouter-Inn, married to Sal.

Young seaman carving a ship

Also known as Ruminating tar

An unnamed sailor carving a ship into a wooden settle.

Young seaman in a green box coat

An unnamed diner at the Spouter-Inn.

Jonah of the Spouter-Inn

Also known as Wrinkled little old Jonah · Bar-tender

An unnamed old man who serves drinks at the Spouter-Inn.

Bulkington

A powerful sailor from the Grampus who later joins the Pequod.

Queequeg

Also known as Harpooneer · Quohog · Hedgehog

A harpooneer from Rokovoko and Ishmael’s friend aboard the Pequod; he offers his coffin as a life-buoy, which ultimately saves Ishmael.

Ishmael’s stepmother

An unnamed woman who raised Ishmael.

Ishmael’s mother

An unnamed woman Ishmael recalls from childhood.

Ledyard

Also known as John Ledyard

A New England traveller cited by Ishmael.

Mungo Park

A Scottish traveller cited by Ishmael.

New Bedford chaplain

Also known as Father Mapple

An elderly chaplain and former sailor who preaches on Jonah.

John Talbot

A whaleman lost overboard near Patagonia.

Robert Long

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Willis Ellery

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Nathan Coleman

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Walter Canny

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Seth Macy

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Samuel Gleig

A member of the Eliza’s boat crew lost to a whale.

Captain Ezekiel Hardy

A whaling captain killed by a sperm whale.

John Talbot’s sister

An unnamed woman who erected a memorial to her brother.

Surviving shipmates of the Eliza’s boat crew

Unnamed sailors who memorialized six lost crewmates.

Widow of Captain Ezekiel Hardy

An unnamed woman who erected a memorial to her husband.

General Washington

Also known as George Washington

The American general and president Ishmael compares to Queequeg.

High Chief of Rokovoko

Also known as King · Queequeg’s father

Queequeg’s father, a king and high chief.

High Priest of Rokovoko

Also known as Queequeg’s uncle

Queequeg’s uncle, the high priest.

Queequeg’s aunts

Queequeg’s unnamed maternal aunts.

Sag Harbor captain

An unnamed captain whose ship visited Queequeg’s father’s bay.

Czar Peter

Also known as Peter the Great

The Russian ruler Ishmael compares with Queequeg.

Queequeg’s sister

Also known as Princess of Rokovoko

Queequeg’s younger sister, a princess.

Captain at Queequeg’s sister’s wedding

An unnamed merchant-ship commander who attends the wedding.

Captain of the Tarshish ship

Also known as Jonah’s Captain

The unnamed captain who takes Jonah aboard.

Jonah’s shipmates

Also known as Mariners aboard the Tarshish ship

The sailors who cast lots and throw Jonah overboard.

Greenhorn on the Moss

Also known as Young bumpkin

An unnamed passenger rescued from the sea by Queequeg.

Captain of the Moss

Also known as Moss captain

An unnamed captain who rebukes Queequeg, then apologizes.

Parents of the lost Indian infant

The unnamed parents in Nantucket’s settlement legend.

Hosea Hussey

Also known as Cousin Hosea

Proprietor of the Try Pots and husband of Mrs. Hussey.

Mrs. Hussey

The woman who runs the Try Pots while her husband is away.

Man in the purple woollen shirt

An unnamed man Mrs. Hussey scolds outside the Try Pots.

Hosea Hussey’s brindled cow

A cow that feeds on fish remnants.

Young Stiggs

Also known as Stiggs

A whaleman found dead at the Try Pots.

Yojo

Queequeg’s wooden god, consulted about choosing a ship.

Captain Peleg

Also known as Peleg

A retired whaleman and Pequod owner who ships Ishmael and Queequeg.

Captain Bildad

Also known as Bildad

A retired whaleman and Pequod owner who helps fit out the ship.

Captain Ahab

Also known as Ahab · Old Thunder

The Pequod’s captain, maimed by Moby Dick and consumed by revenge. He dies when his harpoon line catches around his neck and pulls him into the sea.

Ahab’s mother

Also known as Widowed mother of Ahab

An unnamed widow who died when Ahab was a year old.

Tistig

Also known as Squaw Tistig

An old Indigenous woman said to have foretold the significance of Ahab’s name.

Ahab’s wife

Also known as Ahab’s sweet, resigned girl

Ahab’s unnamed wife, whom he left the day after their marriage to sail for Cape Horn.

Ahab’s child

Ahab’s unnamed young son, who lives at home with his mother.

Deacon Deuteronomy Coleman

Also known as Deacon Deuteronomy

A deacon associated with Nantucket’s meeting-house.

Nat Swaine

Also known as young Nat Swaine

A Nantucket boat-header whose courage Peleg says faded after a religious conversion.

Elijah

A shabby sailor who cryptically warns Ishmael and Queequeg about the Pequod.

Captain Bildad’s sister

Also known as Charity · Aunt Charity

A kindhearted Quaker woman and Pequod shareholder who sends ginger drink aboard.

Old rigger

Also known as Rigger

An unnamed elderly Pequod rigger who tells Ishmael and Queequeg the ship sails that day.

Starbuck

Also known as Mr. Starbuck

The Pequod’s chief mate, who challenges Ahab’s pursuit and assists him during the final chase. He has a wife, Mary, and a young son at home.

Stubb

Also known as Second mate

The Pequod’s easygoing second mate, known for humor and whaling skill; he survives the White Whale’s attacks on his boat.

Steward of the Pequod

Also known as Steward · Dough-Boy

A nervous crew member responsible for the ship’s pantry.

Flask

Also known as Third mate · King-Post

The Pequod’s short, stout third mate and whaleboat headsman.

Tashtego

Also known as Stubb’s squire · Gay-Header

A Gay-Head harpooneer and Stubb’s boat-steerer, rescued by Queequeg from a whale’s case; he is lost with the sinking Pequod while nailing its flag to the mast.

Daggoo

Also known as Ahasuerus Daggoo · Flask’s squire

A gigantic African harpooneer and Flask’s boat-steerer.

Black Little Pip

Also known as Little Pip · Pip

An Alabama boy aboard the Pequod who is left behind at sea, rescued, and thereafter regarded by the crew as mad. Ahab takes him into his cabin and feels an intense bond with him.

Tashtego’s senior

Also known as Old Gay-Head Indian

An unnamed elderly crewman who recalls Ahab’s facial mark.

Grey Manxman

Also known as old Manxman

An elderly sailor from the Isle of Man, on his first Nantucket voyage; he holds the reel when the log-line breaks and interprets cries at sea as voices of drowned men.

Simeon Macey

Ishmael’s Nantucket messmate, who disputes Linnæus’s whale classification.

Charley Coffin

Ishmael’s Nantucket messmate, who disputes Linnæus’s classification.

Captain Scoresby

Also known as Scoresby

A whaling captain and author cited on whales.

Surgeon Beale

Also known as Beale

A South-Sea whaling-ship surgeon and author.

Cuvier

Also known as the great Cuvier · Baron Cuvier

A naturalist cited on whales.

John Hunter

A zoologist and anatomist cited on whales.

Lesson

A naturalist cited on whales.

Aristotle

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Pliny

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Aldrovandi

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Sir Thomas Browne

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Gesner

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Ray

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Linnæus

A naturalist whose whale classification Ishmael discusses.

Rondeletius

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Willoughby

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Green

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Artedi

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Sibbald

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Brisson

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Marten

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Lacépède

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Bonneterre

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Frederick Cuvier

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Owen

A whale author cited by Ishmael.

Bennett

A South-Sea whaling-ship surgeon and author.

J. Ross Browne

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Author of Miriam Coffin

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Olmstead

An author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Rev. T. Cheever

A clergyman and author listed among those who wrote about whales.

Cook

Also known as James Cook

An explorer cited by Ishmael.

Vancouver

An explorer cited by Ishmael.

Krusenstern

An explorer cited by Ishmael.

Louis XVI

The king of France, said to have supported whaling.

Edmund Burke

A British statesman cited by Ishmael.

Other

A Norwegian whale-hunter whose account Ishmael says Alfred recorded.

Alfred the Great

The English king whom Ishmael credits with recording Other’s account.

Benjamin Franklin

Also known as noble Benjamin

An American whose grandmother belonged to a Nantucket family.

Mary Morrel

Also known as Mary Folger

Benjamin Franklin’s grandmother, from an old Nantucket family.

Czar

An unspecified ruler invoked by Ishmael.

Anacharsis Clootz

A revolutionary figure compared with the Pequod’s international crew.

Bunyan

Also known as John Bunyan

A writer invoked by Ishmael.

Cervantes

Also known as Miguel de Cervantes

A writer invoked by Ishmael.

Andrew Jackson

An American president and general invoked by Ishmael.

Badger-haired old merman

Also known as Mr. Humpback

A merman in Stubb’s dream who persuades him to accept Ahab’s kick.

Moby Dick

Also known as White Whale

The white sperm whale that took Ahab’s leg and is the target of his revenge; he destroys the Pequod and its boats, killing Ahab and the crew.

Captain Sleet

A Greenland whaling captain who designed a crow’s-nest.

Obed Macy

Also known as Obed Macy, the sole historian of Nantucket

A Nantucket historian cited by Ishmael.

Saint Stylites

An ancient Christian hermit who lived atop a pillar.

Napoleon

A ruler represented by a statue on the Vendôme Column.

Louis Philippe

A ruler Ishmael names in discussing France.

Louis Blanc

A political leader Ishmael names in discussing France.

Admiral Nelson

Also known as Nelson

A British admiral represented by a statue in Trafalgar Square.

Nicholas the Czar

Also known as Nicholas

A czar invoked as an example of imperial authority.

Cæsar

Also known as Caesar

A Roman ruler invoked by Ishmael.

Belshazzar

The king of Babylon, invoked by Ishmael.

German Emperor

An unnamed emperor in Ishmael’s comparison of formal meals.

Pope

An unnamed pope invoked by Ahab as a powerful leader who serves beggars.

1st Nantucket sailor

Also known as First Nantucket sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who leads a forecastle song.

2nd Nantucket sailor

Also known as Second Nantucket sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who calls Pip to strike the bell.

Dutch sailor

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

French sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who urges dancing.

Iceland sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who objects to dancing.

Maltese sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who jokes about wanting dance partners.

Sicilian sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who encourages dancing and warns Ahab his hat is about to be taken by a hawk.

Long-Island sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who urges dancing and remarks on Queequeg’s coffin.

Azore sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who brings Pip’s tambourine.

China sailor

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

3rd Nantucket sailor

Also known as Third Nantucket sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who asks Tashtego for a puff of his pipe.

Lascar sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who invokes Brahma and Seeva during a storm.

Tahitan sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who recalls Tahitian dancing.

Portuguese sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who warns the crew to reef sail.

Danish sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who remarks on the ship in a storm.

4th Nantucket sailor

Also known as Fourth Nantucket sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who recalls Ahab’s order about squalls.

English sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who praises Ahab and rallies the crew.

Spanish sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who fights Daggoo.

St. Jago’s sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who comments on Daggoo’s quarrel.

Belfast sailor

An unnamed Pequod sailor who cheers the fight.

Childe Harold

A melancholy poetic wanderer imagined by Ishmael.

Cranmer

A figure whose ashes Ishmael compares to a scattering across the world.

Cain

The biblical first murderer, invoked by the Old Manx Sailor.

Abel

Cain’s biblical brother, invoked by the Old Manx Sailor.

Brahma

A Hindu deity named by the Lascar sailor and in a creation story.

Seeva

Also known as Shiva

A Hindu deity named by the Lascar sailor.

Cabaco

Also known as Cholo

An unnamed Pequod sailor whom Archy asks about a noise below the hatches.

Archy

A Pequod sailor on the water-bucket line who hears a noise beneath the hatches.

Old Quakeress

An unnamed woman whose knitting needles Cabaco jokes that Archy once claimed to hear at sea.

Lieutenant Maury

Also known as Maury

An officer of the National Observatory whose circular reports a whale-migration chart in progress.

Olassen

A book naturalist cited for claims about sperm whales.

Povelson

A book naturalist cited for claims about sperm whales.

Timor Tom

A famous whale said to have prowled the Oriental straits of Timor.

New Zealand Jack

A famous whale feared by cruisers near New Zealand.

Morquan

Also known as King of Japan

A famous whale said to be the terror of Japanese waters.

Don Miguel

A famous Chilean whale marked with patterns on its back.

Captain Butler

A captain who set out to capture the Indigenous warrior Annawon.

Annawon

A celebrated warrior of the Indian King Philip, pursued by Captain Butler.

Captain Pollard

Also known as Pollard

Commander of the Essex when a sperm whale sank it; he later lost another ship and left the sea.

Owen Chace

Also known as Chace

Chief mate of the Essex who wrote an account of its sinking by a whale.

Son of Owen Chace

An unnamed man with whom Ishmael says he discussed the Essex tragedy.

Commodore J——

Also known as Commodore

An unnamed American naval commander whose warship was damaged by a sperm whale.

Saul of Tarsus

Also known as Saul

The biblical figure Ishmael invokes as converted by a fright.

Langsdorff

Also known as Captain Langsdorff

An author whose voyage account describes a whale striking a ship.

Captain D’Wolf

Also known as D’Wolf

A New England sea captain whose ship was lifted by a whale; Ishmael’s uncle.

Lionel Wafer

Also known as Lionel

A voyager whose account describes a violent shock to a ship at sea.

Dampier

Also known as William Dampier

An explorer and old companion of Lionel Wafer.

Captain Davis

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

Procopius

A sixth-century magistrate and historian who records a sea monster that destroyed ships.

Justinian

The 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.

Rinaldo Rinaldini

A famously irascible figure used as a comparison for notorious whales.

Cambyses

A king compared with famous whales who had names.

Marius

A Roman figure compared with famous whales in cetacean history.

Sylla

Also known as Sulla

A Roman figure compared with famous whales in cetacean history.

Captain of the Pusie Hall

An unnamed captain whose ship’s experience illustrates a sperm whale’s power.

Comrades killed or maimed by Moby Dick

Unnamed hunters killed or injured during encounters with the White Whale.

Fedallah

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

A mysterious Parsee harpooneer who joins Ahab’s boat crew and foretells that hearses must appear before Ahab dies. His corpse becomes entangled in Moby Dick’s lines and serves as the first hearse omen.

Fedallah’s five boatmen

Also known as Ahab’s five extra men · five dusky phantoms · subordinate phantoms

Five unnamed men who secretly crew Ahab’s personal whaleboat.

Pedro

Also known as Don Pedro

A young Spaniard in the Golden Inn audience to whom Ishmael recounts the Town-Ho’s story.

Sebastian

Also known as Don Sebastian

A young Spaniard in the Golden Inn audience who asks Ishmael questions.

Captain of the Goney

Also known as Goney captain · strange captain

An unnamed Nantucket whaler captain who cannot answer Ahab’s hail about Moby Dick.

Look-outs of the Goney

Six unnamed long-absent whalemen at the Goney’s mast-heads.

Town-Ho captain

Also known as Captain of the Town-Ho

An unnamed captain who imprisons mutineers and later resumes the voyage.

Radney

Also known as Mate of the Town-Ho

The Town-Ho’s overbearing chief mate and part-owner, killed by Moby Dick.

Steelkilt

Also known as Lakeman · Lakeman from Buffalo

A strong Buffalo sailor who leads a mutiny after Radney abuses him and later sees Moby Dick kill Radney.

Three confederate white seamen of the Town-Ho

Also known as Three white seamen

Unnamed sailors who alone know the private part of the Town-Ho’s tragedy.

Spanish friends at the Golden Inn

Ishmael’s unnamed listeners in Lima, gathered to hear his Town-Ho account.

First Canaller

An unnamed Erie Canal boatman aboard the Town-Ho who joins Steelkilt’s supporters and later betrays him.

Second Canaller

An unnamed Erie Canal boatman aboard the Town-Ho who joins Steelkilt’s supporters and later betrays him.

Teneriffe man

An unnamed Town-Ho sailor who spots Moby Dick.

Captain’s one companion

An unnamed Town-Ho sailor who accompanies the captain to Tahiti for reinforcements.

Widow of Radney

An unnamed woman on Nantucket who mourns Radney and dreams of the White Whale.

Priest at the Golden Inn

Also known as worthy priest

An unnamed Lima priest Don Sebastian fetches so Ishmael can swear to his account.

Guido

A painter whose depiction of Perseus and Andromeda’s sea-monster Ishmael criticizes.

Perseus

The mythic hero shown rescuing Andromeda; Ishmael calls him the first whaleman.

Andromeda

A mythic woman shown being rescued by Perseus.

William Hogarth

Also known as Hogarth

A painter whose depiction of Perseus and Andromeda Ishmael criticizes.

Saladin

A ruler invoked in Ishmael’s comparison of an armored dolphin sculpture.

Saint George

Also known as St. George

A saint whom Ishmael interprets as a whale-hunter who slew a dragon-whale.

Vishnu

Also known as Vishnoo

A Hindu deity whose incarnation as a whale rescued the sacred Vedas.

Peter Peterson of Friesland

Also known as Peter Peterson

The master of a ship named in a Dutch whaling voyage title cited by Ishmael.

Captain Colnett

Also known as Colnett

An English naval captain and author whose whale illustration Ishmael finds inaccurate.

Goldsmith

Also known as Oliver Goldsmith

The author of Animated Nature, whose whale illustrations Ishmael criticizes.

Jeremy Bentham

A philosopher whose skeleton Ishmael says conveys his personal appearance.

Achilles

The Greek hero whose shield Ishmael compares to elaborate carvings.

Albert Durer

A Dutch artist whose prints Ishmael invokes when discussing carved whale-bone art.

Mendanna

An explorer Ishmael says once trod the Soloma Islands.

Figuera

A chronicler who wrote about the Soloma Islands.

Bishop Pontoppodan

Also known as Pontoppodan

A bishop whose Kraken account Ishmael suggests may describe the squid.

London beggar-whaleman

Also known as crippled beggar · kedger

An unnamed former whaleman who displays an account of the whale attack in which he lost his leg.

Huggins

An author of one of the published sperm-whale outlines Ishmael discusses.

Garnery

A French painter whose whaling scenes Ishmael praises.

H. Durand

The signature on two French engravings of whaling scenes.

The Old Manx Sailor

An unnamed sailor whose remarks invoke Cain and Abel.

Korah

A biblical figure swallowed by the earth with his company.

Noah

The biblical patriarch whose flood Ishmael says has not truly subsided.

Town-Ho mutineers

Unnamed Town-Ho sailors who refuse work after the captain confines them.

Town-Ho deserters

Unnamed foremastmen who desert the Town-Ho at a remote island.

Town-Ho islanders

Also known as Islanders

Unnamed local people whom the Town-Ho captain employs to help repair the ship.

Tahiti reinforcements

Unnamed Tahitian sailors recruited to help crew the Town-Ho.

Living squid

Also known as great live squid · white ghost

A huge, pale, many-armed sea creature briefly seen by the Pequod’s crew.

Kraken

A legendary sea monster described by Bishop Pontoppodan.

Town-Ho mate’s shipmate

An unnamed sailor who asks Steelkilt what he is braiding while planning revenge.

Tashtego’s boat crew

Unnamed oarsmen in Stubb’s whaleboat who help pursue and harpoon a sperm whale.

Tub oarsman

An unnamed member of Stubb’s whaleboat crew who wets the running line.

Forecastle seaman on anchor watch

An unnamed Pequod sailor who joins Queequeg on anchor watch and helps kill sharks around a whale carcass.

Fleece

Also known as old Fleece · Cook

The Pequod’s elderly Black cook, whom Stubb summons to serve and discuss whale steak.

Captain Mayhew

Also known as Mayhew

Captain of the Jeroboam, who tells Ahab how Gabriel gained influence and how Macey died.

Gabriel of the Jeroboam

Also known as Gabriel

A mentally ill sailor who claims to be the archangel Gabriel and opposes attacking Moby Dick.

Harry Macey

Also known as Mr. Harry Macey · Macey

The Jeroboam’s chief mate, killed by Moby Dick while attacking the whale.

Wife of Harry Macey

Also known as Macey’s wife

An unnamed woman who sends a letter to her deceased husband.

Locke

A philosopher invoked in Ishmael’s comparison about balancing opposing ideas.

Kant

A philosopher invoked in Ishmael’s comparison about balancing opposing ideas.

Derick De Deer

The German captain of the whaler Jungfrau, who joins a whale hunt and is thrown from his boat.

Old one-finned whale

Also known as old bull

An aged, yellowish, blind whale with a missing or damaged fin, killed by the Pequod’s boats.

Lavater

A physiognomist cited by Ishmael.

Gall

A phrenologist cited by Ishmael.

Spurzheim

Gall’s disciple, cited in Ishmael’s discussion of phrenology.

Phidias

A sculptor whose statue of Jove Ishmael mentions.

Shakespeare

A writer whose brow Ishmael describes as exceptionally high.

Melancthon

A figure whose brow Ishmael describes as exceptionally high.

Champollion

A scholar who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Sir William Jones

A scholar who read thirty languages.

Ohio honey-hunter

An unnamed man who died after being drawn into a honey-filled hollow tree.

Derick De Deer’s harpooneer

An unnamed German harpooneer thrown from the Jungfrau’s boat during the chase.

Old Sag-Harbor whaleman

Also known as Sag-Harbor

An unnamed whaleman who doubts the historical story of Jonah and the whale.

Bishop Jebb

A bishop whose proposed explanation places Jonah temporarily in a whale’s mouth.

German exegetist

An unnamed German commentator who supposes Jonah took refuge in a dead whale’s floating body.

French soldiers in the Russian campaign

Soldiers mentioned as having sheltered inside dead horses.

Continental commentators

Unnamed commentators who propose that Jonah escaped to another nearby vessel.

Portuguese Catholic priest

An unnamed priest who proposes Jonah travelled to Nineveh by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Turks who believe in Jonah

People mentioned as devout believers in Jonah’s historical story.

English traveller in Harris’s Voyages

An unnamed traveller who reports a Turkish mosque honoring Jonah.

Bartholomew Diaz

The reputed discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope.

Hercules

A Greek demigod said to have been swallowed and cast up by a whale.

Arion

A figure in a tradition about a dolphin, mentioned alongside Hercules.

Dagon

A Philistine idol whose horse-like head and hands fell away before the Ark of Israel.

Ezekiel

The prophet whose words Ishmael reads as referring to a whale.

Cleopatra

The queen whose barges are used in a comparison for fleeing whales.

Jupiter

A god named as Perseus’s father and invoked in Ishmael’s reflections.

Plato

A philosopher invoked in Ishmael’s speculation about profound beings.

Pyrrho

A philosopher invoked in Ishmael’s speculation about profound beings.

The Devil

Also known as Devil

A supernatural figure invoked in Ishmael’s reflections on profound beings.

Dante

A poet invoked in Ishmael’s reflections on profound beings.

Eckerman

A devoted observer who lifted the linen sheet from Goethe’s corpse.

Goethe

A writer whose physique is described by Ishmael.

Angelo

An artist Ishmael names in discussing depictions of God the Father.

Darmonodes’ elephant

An elephant said to have offered flowers and caresses to young women.

Elephant that extracted the dart

An unnamed elephant said to have removed a dart from its wound with its trunk.

King Juba

Also known as Juba

A king cited for the report that military elephants greeted the morning.

Ptolemy Philopater

A ruler whom Ishmael cites as a witness regarding the African elephant.

King Porus

Also known as Porus

An Indian king whose elephants Ishmael compares with panicked whales.

Alexander

Also known as Alexander the Great

The conqueror whose battle with King Porus is mentioned.

Arnold at the battle of Saratoga

Also known as Arnold

A mounted fighter whose desperate charge Ishmael compares to a wounded whale.

Daniel Boone

A frontiersman used as a comparison for solitary aged whales.

Solomon

The biblical king invoked in Ishmael’s description of a whale among its harem.

Vidocq

A Frenchman whose memoirs are cited in a speculation about the term schoolmaster.

Young whale in the herd

Also known as young cub · little infant

A very young whale tethered to its mother by its umbilical cord, seen by Ishmael and the crew.

Nursing mother whale

Also known as Madame Leviathan

An unnamed whale mother whose young is seen tethered to her in the herd.

Wounded whale in the herd

An unnamed whale carrying a harpoon line and cutting-spade, which accidentally wounds and kills other whales.

Malays pursuing the Pequod

Also known as Malays

Unnamed Malay pirates who pursue the Pequod through the Straits of Sunda.

Pursuit boat oarsman

An unnamed member of Queequeg’s boat who loses his seat when a drugg tears it away.

Whaling plaintiffs

Unnamed whalemen who sue after another ship captures a whale they harpooned and later lost.

Whaling defendants

Unnamed sailors from another ship who capture and claim the plaintiffs’ whale and gear.

Captain of the whaling defendants

An unnamed captain who claims a captured whale and the plaintiffs’ attached gear.

Erskine

Also known as Mr. Erskine

Counsel in the whale ownership case; he argues that the legal doctrines of Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish apply to the case.

Lord Ellenborough

The judge who rules that the disputed whale and its attached harpoons and line belong to the defendants.

Gentleman who abandoned his wife

An unnamed man in a legal case who abandons his wife and later sues to recover her.

Wife in the crim. con. case

Also known as lady

An unnamed woman abandoned by her husband and later re-harpooned by another gentleman in Erskine’s legal analogy.

Subsequent gentleman in the crim. con. case

An unnamed man who re-harpoons the abandoned wife in Erskine’s analogy.

Mordecai

A broker described as taking a ruinous discount from the bankrupt Woebegone.

Woebegone

A bankrupt whose family faces starvation and who borrows from Mordecai.

Archbishop of Savesoul

A fictional or satirical archbishop whose large income is described as taken from laborers.

Duke of Dunder

A duke whose hereditary towns and hamlets are used as examples of Fast-Fish.

John Bull

A personification of England, described as the harpooner who claims Ireland.

Brother Jonathan

A personification of the United States, described as the lancer who claims Texas.

Christopher Columbus

Also known as Columbus

The explorer who claimed America for the Spanish monarchs in 1492.

King of England

Also known as Sovereign

The English monarch who, under the cited law, is entitled to a captured whale’s head.

Queen of England

Also known as Queen

The English monarch who, under the cited law, is entitled to a captured whale’s tail.

Lord Warden

The crown-appointed officer of the Cinque Ports whose assigned rights are used to claim a whale landed by mariners.

Learned gentleman with Blackstone

Also known as stranger

An unnamed legal representative who claims the whale for the Lord Warden and refuses the mariners’ objections.

Duke of Wellington

Also known as his Grace the Duke · the Duke

The Duke who receives money from the sale of a whale seized under his delegated authority as Lord Warden.

Honest clergyman of the town

Also known as reverend gentleman

An unnamed clergyman who writes to the Duke of Wellington on behalf of the mariners.

Dover and Cinque Ports mariners

Also known as honest mariners

Unnamed sailors who catch and beach a whale, only to have it seized for the Duke of Wellington.

Mariner with the bed-ridden mother

An unnamed member of the mariners who hopes to use his share of the whale to relieve his mother.

Plowdon

A legal commentator who says the royal claim to a whale rests on its superior excellence.

William Prynne

An old King’s Bench author who gives a mistaken explanation for why the whale’s tail belongs to the Queen.

King Asa

Also known as Asa

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

Queen Maachah

Also known as Maachah

King Asa’s mother, whose idol was destroyed and burned.

Nantucket-born Captain Coffin

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

Stubb’s boat crew

Unnamed Pequod sailors in Stubb’s boat who help recover ambergris from a whale.

Guernsey-man

Also known as Guernseyman · chief-mate · stranger mate

The chief mate of the French whaler Bouton de Rose; he interprets for the captain and conspires with Stubb to persuade him to release the whales.

Captain of the Bouton de Rose

Also known as French captain

An unnamed former Cologne manufacturer on his first whaling voyage, who commands the French ship and releases the whales after Stubb’s deceptive warning.

Tormented surgeon of the Bouton de Rose

Also known as French ship’s surgeon

An unnamed surgeon who objects to the French captain’s handling of the whales and retreats to the captain’s cabin.

After-oarsman in Stubb’s boat

An unnamed Pequod sailor who sprains his hand, leading Pip to take his place.

Two boat crews following Stubb

Unnamed whaleboat crews that chase other whales instead of rescuing Pip.

Pythagoras

An ancient Greek philosopher whom Ishmael imagines sailing with him and learning to splice a rope.

Solomon’s mother

An unnamed woman invoked by Ishmael as the mother of the biblical king Solomon.

Cowper

A poet cited by Ishmael in a reflection on sorrow.

Young

A writer cited by Ishmael in a reflection on sorrow.

Pascal

A thinker cited by Ishmael in a reflection on sorrow.

Rousseau

A writer cited by Ishmael in a reflection on sorrow.

Louis le Gros

A king whose imagined thigh Ishmael uses in comparing a piece of whale flesh to a royal cutlet.

Bowditch

Also known as old Bowditch

An author of a navigational book Stubb consults while interpreting the doubloon.

Daboll

The author of an arithmetic book Stubb jokingly consults for help interpreting the doubloon.

Old witch in Copenhagen

An unnamed woman who taught the Old Manxman the signs of the zodiac.

Murray

Also known as Murray’s Grammar

The name associated with the grammar Pip has studied; no individual role beyond the cited grammar is given.

Captain Boomer

Also known as one-armed captain · English captain · captain of the Samuel Enderby

The good-natured captain of the Samuel Enderby, who lost an arm in an encounter with Moby Dick and refuses to hunt the whale again.

Samuel Enderby

Also known as old Samuel · original Samuel

The late London merchant after whom the whaling ship Samuel Enderby is named; he founded the famous Enderby whaling house.

Mr. Mounttop

Also known as Mounttop

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

Dr. Bunger

Also known as Jack Bunger · Bunger

The Samuel Enderby’s ship’s surgeon, a former clergyman and professed teetotaler whom Captain Boomer mocks affectionately.

Carpenter

Also known as Pequod’s carpenter

The unnamed, versatile Pequod carpenter, who makes Ahab replacement legs and converts Queequeg’s coffin into a life-buoy.

Blacksmith

Also known as Smut · old Smut · Perth

Perth, the Pequod’s old, grief-stricken blacksmith, who makes Ahab’s replacement leg and forges his harpoon for Moby Dick.

Dr. Snodhead

Also known as Snodhead

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

Fitz Swackhammer

The named author of an ancient Dutch volume on commerce and the whale fishery, as Ishmael initially supposes it to be.

Tranquo

Also known as King Tranquo · king of Tranque

The late king of Tranque and Ishmael’s royal friend, who preserved and enshrined a giant sperm-whale skeleton.

Sir Clifford Constable

Also known as Sir Clifford

The lord of Burton Constable who owns an articulated sperm-whale skeleton.

Judge Creagh

The judge whose Alabama plantation yielded the nearly complete fossil skeleton of an extinct whale.

John Leo

Also known as John Leo, the old Barbary traveller

A Barbary traveller whose account describes a temple built from whale bones and local beliefs about it.

Shem

Noah’s son, whom Ishmael imagines seeking out while contemplating the whale’s ancient existence.

Prophet and seer of Queequeg’s island

A deceased island prophet who tattooed Queequeg with a symbolic account of the heavens, earth, and the pursuit of truth.

Wife of the blacksmith

The blacksmith’s loving young wife, who died after his alcoholism destroyed their home.

Children of the blacksmith

The blacksmith’s three children, who lost their home and followed their mother to the grave.

Captain of the Bachelor

Also known as Bachelor’s commander

An unnamed, jovial Nantucket captain whose ship is returning home after an exceptionally successful whaling voyage.

Islanders lost from the Bachelor

Two unnamed islanders reported lost by the Bachelor’s captain.

Sailor lost from the Pequod’s foremast-head

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

An unnamed Pequod sailor who falls from the foremast-head at dawn and drowns; the ship’s life-buoy fails to float.

Captain Gardiner

Also known as stranger Captain · Rachel captain

A Nantucket captain of the Rachel who asks Ahab to help search for his missing sons. After the Pequod sinks, the Rachel rescues Ishmael while searching for its missing crew.

Captain Gardiner’s missing son

Also known as Captain Gardiner’s boy

One of Captain Gardiner’s sons, among the Rachel’s missing whaleboat crew; his fate remains unknown.

Captain Gardiner’s younger son

Also known as little lad

Captain Gardiner’s twelve-year-old son, also missing after being separated from the Rachel during the whale chase.

Rachel’s missing whaleboat crew

Also known as missing boat’s crew · missing children

The unnamed sailors from the Rachel’s fourth boat, lost while pursuing Moby Dick; Captain Gardiner’s sons are among them.

Chief mate of the Rachel

An unnamed officer who chooses to rescue the majority of the Rachel’s separated boat crews first.

Captain of the Delight

Also known as hollow-cheeked captain

An unnamed, grieving captain whose boat was wrecked during a deadly encounter with Moby Dick; he buries one of five dead men and says the others were buried before they died.

Dead whalemen aboard the Delight

Also known as five stout men

Five unnamed men killed in an encounter with Moby Dick; the Delight’s captain is burying one of them when the Pequod passes.

Sky-hawk

Also known as sky-hawk · bird of heaven

A hawk that tears at Ahab’s flag and is caught in it as the Pequod sinks.