San Antonio College Library

Facing the risks of nineteenth-century sailing, including pirates and unscrupulous captains, a young mate sets his sights on a whale with an unusual reputation and finds his crew stalked by a menacing force.

Fleeing the horrors of the Civil War by deserting, Brendan Kane joins the crew of the Narthex, an oddly shaped vessel, unaware that the ship's intended destination is a mythic temperate paradise in the heart of the Arctic ice.

The young sailor Ishmael befriends a tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, and finds himself aboard the Pequod, which is captained by the obsessive Captain Ahab. Not long after the voyage has begun, Ahab tells the crew about his secret plot to hunt down the whale that crippled him on a previous voyage, Moby Dick. The crew of the Pequod are also after as much sperm oil as their ship can carry, and the account of the crew's years-long pursuit...