Moby-Dick

Fictional Whale

Moby-Dick is the enormous white whale who torments Captain Ahab in the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick (1851). Ahab is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab's burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At novel's end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him. Melville based his tale, in part, on the sinking of the real-life whaling ship Essex in 1820.

Extra credit: Yes, it's true: the first mate Starbuck in Moby-Dick was the inspiration for the name of the Starbucks coffee chain... The musician Moby is a descendant of Melville -- hence his wry nickname... Moby-Dick's first line is famously short: "Call me Ishmael." Ishmael is the book's narrator and the only survivor of the Pequod's encounter with Moby-Dick.

Other critters of film and literature: Keiko the whale, Toto the dog, and King Kong the giant ape.