What is "queequeg"

Queequeg is a fictional character in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. The son of a South Sea chieftain who left home to explore the world, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by the narrator, Ishmael. The quick friendship and relationship of equality between the tattooed cannibal and the white sailor shows Melville's basic theme of shipboard democracy and racial diversity. Once aboard the whaling ship Pequod Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate Starbuck. At the end of the novel he "casts the runes", which say he will die. He therefore builds a coffin and refuses to eat or drink, but ultimately decides to stay alive and then recovers. The coffin is later converted to a lifebuoy after the ship's original one is lost. When Moby-Dick sinks the ship, Ishmael survives by clinging to it until another ship arrives to pick him up.