History

Our Ahab is inspired by the infamous whaler Captain Ahab from Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick. The action in this novel revolves around Ahab’s obsessive quest to kill the sperm whale Moby Dick, who bites off one of his legs. Though the novel’s association of amputation and violent obsession is troubling, it contains a very early representation of a workplace (the ship The Pequod) adapted for a disabled person. See chapter 3 of Ryan Sweet’s free 2022 book Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.

Backstory

Captain of the whaling ship Pequod, Ahab’s leg was bitten off by the legendary whale Moby Dick.
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