* This might be obvious, I'm not sure. But: Moby-Dick, while he's most likely just a big whale and not a malevolent force, is still badass and unstoppable, and most characters are aware that going after him is suicide even though they kill huge whales for a living constantly. The fact that he's a WHITE whale may explain this: in nature, albino animals are much easier to see and therefore usually eaten very quickly as babies. Moby would have been a swimming target and had to defend himself every day to an insane degree, sort of like a boy named Sue. If Moby-Dick grew up constantly threatened by predators he would HAVE to be the ass-kickingest whale around or he would have been munched on by some shark or shanked by some whaler as a baby whale. So no wonder he has no problem sinking whaling ships- he's the most experienced fighter in the whale world!