"Call me Ishmael."

The son of a South Sea chieftain who left home to explore the world, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by Ishmael. His primitive tribe practices cannibalism, in particular devouring the flesh of enemies slain in battle.

On a previous voyage, Moby-Dick bit off Ahab's leg at the knee and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone.

The Pequod and her crew are central to the story, which takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans.

Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he nails to the mast.

Four boats are lowered in vain when Daggoo mistakes a giant squid for the white whale.

About 3,200 copies were sold during the author's lifetime.

Queequeg practices a form of animism using a small idol named Yojo, for whom he builds small ceremonial fires.

The book was first published in London as The Whale.

Ishmael hears Mapple's sermon on the subject of Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale but did not turn against God.