Ishmael Timeline and Summary

Ishmael, depressed, decides to take a whaling voyage and travels to Nantucket to find a ship.
At the Spouter-Inn, Ishmael meets a South Sea Islander harpooneer named Queequeg, with whom he has to share a bed.
Ishmael and Queequeg become best friends and bosom companions – Queequeg proclaims that they’re "married," so this friendship may not be exactly platonic.
Ishmael and Queequeg join the crew of a whaling ship, the Pequod, for a three-year voyage to the Pacific and back.
Ishmael, along with the rest of the Pequod’s men, swears to take part in Captain Ahab’s crazy revenge quest on the mysterious white whale, Moby Dick.
As a common sailor on the Pequod, Ishmael starts fading into the background a bit.
Ishmael tells the reader a variety of information about whales and whaling ships.
When the Pequod is destroyed, Ishmael is the only survivor of the wreck. He lives to tell the tale of Moby-Dick.