In which ocean does the Pequod hunt Moby Dick?

The Pequod hunts Moby Dick in the Pacific Ocean. Captain Ahab’s pursuit crosses several oceans, but the climactic search for the white whale takes place in the Pacific, where the crew finally encounters him.

Herman Melville’s 1851 novel begins with the Pequod leaving Nantucket and traveling through the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Ahab repeatedly changes course whenever another ship reports a sighting of Moby Dick. The voyage eventually carries the ship around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Pacific.

The Pacific setting is important because it connects Ahab’s obsessive hunt with the vast, remote whaling grounds of the nineteenth century. Readers sometimes answer “Indian Ocean” because the Pequod spends significant time there, but that is only one stage of the voyage. The final three-day chase, the destruction of the Pequod, and Ahab’s death all occur in the Pacific.