The sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator.

In Chapter 10, Ishmael says: "His forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief.... It reminded me of General Washington's head, as seen in popular busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed."

Starbuck, a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket, is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal.

The Spouter Inn is overcrowded, so Ishmael is forced to share a bed with the tattooed Polynesian cannibal.

Queequeg's father was king of the fictional island of Rokovoko.

Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the Goney (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale, but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer.

On December 30, 1840, he signed on as a green hand for the maiden voyage of the Acushnet, planned to last for 52 months. Only 11 of the 26 original crew members completed the voyage.

The book is dedicated to Hawthorne as a token of Melville's "admiration for his genius".

The Jeroboam not only lost its chief mate but is now plagued by an epidemic.

After sighting the whale, Ahab claims the doubloon for himself.