"Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when about sunrise a great many whales and other monsters of the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most monstrous size. This came towards us, open-mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea before him in a foam." Accounts such as this one from "The True History" founded readers' interests in Herman Melville's fictional novel, Moby Dick. Moby Dick begins with a man, Ishmael, who has been booked to sail on a whaling ship, The Pequod, the next morning. Ishmael's sea adventure begins when he has to share a bed with a "native" who is an excellent marksman by the name of Queequeg, a large, dark-skinned man with many tribal tattoos, who, when he is not whaling, sells souvenir shrunken heads. Though their differences are evident, this meeting becomes the basis of a...