Captain Ahab

When Herman Melville created the main character of Captain Ahab for his most well-known work, Moby Dick, he never suspected that the character would became an universal symbol of the bitter fate that awaits to anyone who is willing to go anywhere or do anything in pursue of vengeance.

Moby Dick, published in 1851, tells the story of the obsessive, hate-driven Captain Ahab of the whaler ship Pequod, which lives for the sole purpose of finding Moby Dick, a white whale that bit off his leg and scarred his body on a previous voyage. When he manages to sight again the whale, he discards all kind of precaution in pursue of the object of his hate. He finally gets dragged by the escaping animal to the bottom of the sea.

Even if this novel was not an immediate success and by the time of the death of Melville was out of print, interest about it developed in the 20th century until it reached the status of "Great American novel". It stands as a chronicle of life at sea on those ages and includes multiple interesting characters and passages.

For our bust, we have gone for a classic appearance of Ahab with a sailor coat and a Quaker-style hat, holding the deadly harpoon of his trade and staring defiantly to the horizon in search of his nemesis.