“What is the name of the African cabin boy on the Pequod?” The answer is Pip. Short for Pippin, Pip is the young cabin boy aboard Captain Ahab’s whaling ship in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.
Pip is initially assigned ordinary cabin-boy duties, but he is later placed in Stubb’s whaleboat after another crewman is injured. During a whale chase, Pip panics and jumps overboard. The harpoon line becomes tangled around him, forcing the crew to cut the line and lose the whale. When he leaps again later, the boat leaves him behind, and he is eventually recovered by the Pequod.
The experience profoundly changes him. Ishmael describes Pip as mentally altered, and Pip begins speaking in strange, philosophical language. Ahab takes a special interest in him, calling him his “boy” and allowing him to stay in the captain’s cabin.
Pip is sometimes confused with Daggoo, an African harpooneer, or Fleece, the ship’s cook. Neither is the cabin boy: Pip occupies that distinct role in the Pequod’s crew.