Narrated by the crew member Ishmael, this epic whaling adventure follows the crew of the Pequod as its captain, Ahab, descends deeper and deeper into madness on his quest to find and kill the white whale that maimed him. Beyond the surface of ship life, whaling, and the hunt for the elusive Moby Dick are allegorical references to life - and even the universe - in this masterpiece by Herman Melville. Regarded as the Great American Novel, Moby Dick...

The Nantucket whaling ship, the Pequod, spirals the globe in search of Moby Dick, the mythical white whale of the Southern Oceans. Driven by the obsessive revenge of Captain Ahab, the crew and the outcast Ishmael find themselves caught up in a demonic pursuit which leads inexorably to an apocalyptic climax.

On November 20, 1820, in the Southeast Pacific, an enormous 85-foot sperm whale rammed and sank Nantucket whale ship The Essex and set its crew adrift more than a thousand miles from land. Only eight members of the young crew survived starvation, thirst and exposure, rescued at last by British whale ships three months later. Elderly Tom Nickerson recalls how, in 1819, he went to sea as cabin boy on The Essex, leaving Nantucket. Its recently promoted...