The Pequod leaves Nantucket on a cold Christmas Day with a crew made up of men from many different countries and races.
Ahab hopes that their skills and Fedallah\'s prophetic abilities will help him in his hunt for Moby Dick..
These men constitute Ahab\'s private harpoon crew, smuggled aboard in defiance of Bildad and Peleg.
The men\'s leader is an exotic-looking man named Fedallah.
During the hunt, a group of men, none of whom anyone on the ship\'s crew has seen before on the voyage, emerges from the hold.
As the Pequod sails toward the southern tip of Africa, whales are sighted and unsuccessfully hunted.
Ahab nails a gold doubloon to the mast and declares that it will be the prize for the first man to sight the whale.
He announces his desire to pursue and kill Moby Dick, the legendary great white Whale who took his leg, because he sees this Whale as the embodiment of evil.
Soon the ship is in warmer waters, and Ahab makes his first appearance on deck, balancing gingerly on his false leg, which is made from a sperm whale\'s jaw.
The Pequod leaves Nantucket on a cold Christmas Day with a crew made up of men from many different countries and races
