[0:05]My name is Ishmael, I will be the one telling this story. I am a sailor and loved to travel. My life was with the ocean. Whenever I'm not at sea, I feel sad. Although I was a sailor, I was not a whaler. I have never caught a whale in my life but the idea sounded exciting to me. I arrived in Nantucket looking for a room. The man running the place told me there was none available, I would have to bunk with another man by the name of Queequeg. Queequeg, as it so happens, is a whaler. I was too tired to care. I went to my room and fell asleep immediately. A noise woke me up. I opened my eyes and got a shock to see a big man with lines all over his body and face. I yelled out in fright. The large man leapt on me. The barman barge in the room, "Stop, Queequeg! This man is rooming with you tonight," he turned to me, "Queequeg here is one of the finest whalers. He won't hurt you." I felt silly. Queequeg and I talked a bit more by the fire. Queequeg was from the island of Kokovoko, a long way in the Pacific Ocean. His father was an important man but he wanted to see the world so he left his home to become a whaler. Queequeg and I became great friends. We will both find a whaling ship together. The next morning, I stood before the great ship, the Pequod. A man was sitting there in a long black coat and black hat. He did not smile. His name was Starbuck. Starbuck was skeptical of my qualifications. He said the captain of the Pequod was a hard man and whaling is a hard life. I managed to convince him that Queequeg and I would be great whalers. Queequeg was a better whaler than all the men on the Pequod. We passed by a man named Elijah. Elijah yelled out, "Watch out for Captain Ahab. He's the DEVIL! The one-legged DEVIL! And his men are the devil's helpers!" Queequeg and I left that strange man. We did not see Captain Ahab for weeks. Then one day he appeared with something in his hand. "I have this gold here, when you see a white whale, you shout. The first person to spot the white whale...will get this gold."

[2:51]The men were transfixed with the gold. Everyone but Starbuck. This whale was Moby Dick. Starbuck was angry. Whalers work for money. They catch whales for money. Captain Ahab was chasing this white whale out of revenge. He tried to talk some sense into Captain Ahab. "This whale is evil! I will only be free when this whale is dead!" said Captain Ahab. Starbuck said no more. He walked away disappointed. Many days passed. We did not see Moby Dick but we caught many other whales. There's a lot of work to do when a whale is caught. You have to cut the fat out, boil it down and fill it in the barrels. All this time, when work was going on, Captain Ahab could only think about Moby Dick. He did not care for the whale oil. Captain Ahab spent many nights studying maps. He will only talk to Fedallah. Fedallah was one of Captain Ahab's 'devil helpers'. Fedallah and the other 'helpers' slept during the day and watch out for Moby Dick at night. The other whalers say that Fedallah could see the future. That fateful night, Fedallah yelled out. He had spotted the white whale! Captain Ahab and the other men gathered on the side of the ship. Captain Ahab was as happy as a child. Moby Dick came night after night. "It wants us to follow him!" said Captain Ahab. We tried following Moby Dick but had lost him. We had to continue our work catching other whales. Pip was the cook's boy. He was only fourteen-years old. A whaling ship was no place for such a young boy. Pip was usually a cheery boy but something happened to him one day. They were short on men so Pip was placed with the other whalers on the rowboat. When a whale was hit with the harpoon, it turned around to attack the rowboat. Pip jumped into the water because he was afraid. This made the men angry because they had to cut the harpoon rope to save him. The men told Pip not to do that anymore. But Pip was too afraid. The next time he jumped again, the men left him in the ocean. Pip cried out to them. "Don't leave me!" Captain Ahab came back later on the Pequod to rescue him. Since then, Pip had never been the same. He thought Captain Ahab was God and followed him around everywhere. A few days later we ran into another problem. The oil barrels were leaking. We were losing all that whale oil everyone worked so hard for. Captain Ahab wanted to continue to pursue Moby Dick. But Starbuck pleaded with him to stop and fix the barrels before all is lost. Everyone had to work very hard fixing the barrels especially Queequeg. Queequeg preferred to sleep on the deck where the air was cooler but one day, he caught a fever. It got so bad, he asked his friends to make him a coffin. He asked to be put inside the coffin with his harpoon, some food and water. He slept in his coffin, waiting to die. I was very sad. But one morning, Queequeg got back up, "I cannot die now, there is still work to do." And that was that. The Pequod sailed into the Pacific Ocean. Whaling was good there. But one night Captain Ahab had a dream. He cried out to Fedallah. He had dreamt about his own death. "You will not die," said Fedallah. "Only a rope can kill you. And you will die only after I am gone." Captain Ahab went into a crazed frenzy. He was putting everyone in danger. Starbuck wanted to kill him but he didn't. I wish he had though. When we spotted Moby Dick again, Captain Ahab got on a boat with some men to go after it. Moby Dick was a clever creature. It swam under us and surfaced its huge, white body. Its mouth opened and closed around the boat. The men all jumped into the water but Captain Ahab stayed in the boat, cursing at Moby Dick. Moby Dick did not come back again, everyone went back to the Pequod. "White whale! White whale!" Someone cried. This time, more boats went after him. Harpoons rained down on Moby Dick. Moby Dick pulled on the ropes and took the boats down with him. Men were all over the ocean. "Fedallah! Where is Fedallah?" cried Captain Ahab. He can lose his gold but he cannot lose Fedallah. We saw Moby Dick again three days later. When he surfaced, we saw ropes encircling its body. Fedallah was in between these ropes. He was dead. His arms was swinging up and down and his eyes were open and water was coming out of his mouth. This made Captain Ahab angry. He threw his harpoon at Moby Dick. Moby Dick circled back around and swam directly towards the Pequod. It hit the Pequod with monstrous force. The ship was going down and everyone in it... Pip, Starbuck and Queequeg. Captain Ahab threw another harpoon. The whale pulled the boat with the harpoon rope. It swam very fast and tossed the other whalers off the boat. Captain Ahab tried to cut the rope but the ropes went around his body and Moby Dick pulled him down into the ocean with it. Captain Ahab was gone. The Pequod was gone. Captain Ahab was dead. All the other men were also gone. I was the only one in the water struggling to stay afloat. Was this to be my end? Will I die here and join my friend, Queequeg? Something came out of the water and hit me. Was it a shark? Moby Dick? No, it was Queequeg's coffin, floating in the water. I climbed onto it and held on for dear life. My friend has come to save me one last time. I stayed on the coffin for two days and two nights. The days were scorching hot and the nights were very cold. Even if I had survived, I might still die of starvation and thirst. Then one night, I saw a sail. And that sail slowly bore the shape of a ship. It was the Rachel. The Captain of that ship rescued me, and so I lived, and I can tell you my tragic story.