In this two-part made-for-TV retelling of the legendary Herman Melville tale, Ishmael, sole survivor of the lost whaling ship The Pequod, relates the tale of monomaniacal Captain Ahab 's self-destructive obsession to hunt and slay the elusive great white whale, Moby Dick, who disfigured him, forcing his tired and mutinous crew to travel the seas until they find it.