Place

Nantucket

Also called Nantucketers.

2 chapters in narrative order

Chapter 14 Nantucket
Ishmael introduces Nantucket as a tiny island with an outsized whaling empire.
Chapter 15 Chowder
Ishmael and Queequeg arrive at the Try Pots inn and enter Nantucket's whaling culture through food and talk.

Close reading “clam or cod”
The chowder chapter is comic, but it also slows the book around food, appetite, and port comfort before the Pequod's danger takes over.