At first rejected by the whaler that landed on his island, he skillfully jumped from a canoe and clamped to the side of the boat as it was leaving for the open sea, at which point the captain relented.

[1] In her book, Tattooing the World, author Juniper Ellis contemplates the significance of Queequeg's face and bodily markings.

Ellis claims that Melville was inspired by a representation of the Māori Chief Te Pēhi Kupe in George Lillie Craik's book, The New Zealanders.

Records indicate that Melville's encounter with Craik's book in 1850 caused him to replace Bulkington (the originally intended companion of Ishmael) with a new character: Queequeg.

[2] While the descriptions of Queequeg's tattoos are dissimilar to those of the Māori Chief, Ellis claims that Melville took inspiration from Te Pēhi Kupe.

[2] Because the historical evidence points to Craik's book as an inspiration for Melville, Ellis argues that these tattoos similarly indicate genealogy, family, and individual identities.

[1] Michael C. Berthold's journal article titled "Moby-Dick and American Slave Narrative" from the Massachusetts Review outline's one idea regarding the symbolic meaning of Queeqeug's coffin.

[4] When Queequeg heals and is no longer presumed to die in chapter 110, the book mentions how he spent many hours "carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figures and drawings...to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body.

"[4] Berthold sees this moment as in contrast to chapter 18 when Captain Peleg mislabels him as Quohog in the forms enrolling him to work on the ship.

Berthold sees this full representation of Queequeg's tattoos on the coffin as a reclamation of "the wholeness that the official discourse of a Peleg denies him" previously in chapter 18.

In her journal article "'Defamiliarization' and the Ideology of Race in 'Moby Dick'", Martha Vick states that the "use of language to acknowledge equality [specifically in descriptions of Queequeg] bestows the highest dignity possible on a nonwhite character at the same time that it calls into question the use of racial characteristics as criteria for determining identity.

Vick believes that Ishmael's consideration of Queequeg that contrasts the "illusion of his darkness" with the "reality of his goodness" promotes questioning of the traditional ideas of the racial hierarchy.

[5] Vick mentions how Ishmael then states that "a man can be honest in any sort of skin", which contributes to her argument that Melville's language encourages a new and just way of thinking.

[1] He is an extraordinary harpooner, demonstrating his skill for the money-tight owners of the Pequod by striking a small drop of tar floating on the water with one throw.