What is the name of the captain of the ship Rachel?

The captain of the ship Rachel in Moby-Dick is Captain Gardiner.

The Rachel appears near the end of the novel, when the Pequod encounters her during the final stages of Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick. Captain Gardiner is searching for a missing whaleboat and crewmen, including his young son, who disappeared after an encounter with the white whale. He asks Ahab to help with the search, but Ahab refuses because he is determined to continue hunting Moby Dick.

The ship’s name carries a biblical allusion. Rachel is described as “weeping for her children,” echoing the biblical image of Rachel mourning her lost children. That symbolism gives the encounter an emotional weight beyond an ordinary meeting between whaling ships: Gardiner’s practical rescue request contrasts sharply with Ahab’s obsessive revenge.

Captain Gardiner is easy to confuse with other captains in the novel. Captain Boomer commands the Samuel Enderby, while Bildad and Peleg are associated with the Pequod’s ownership and management rather than the Rachel. Gardiner’s identity is established directly in the chapter commonly titled “The Pequod Meets the Rachel.”