The Internet search engine giant Google has a new homepage doodle for Thursday, October 18, 2012, as it marks the 161st anniversary of the first publication of Moby-Dick, the world-renowned work by American novelist Herman Melville. 

In its homepage doodle devoted to Moby-Dick, Google depicts the scene where Captain Ahab is getting ready to attack Moby-Dick, the great white whale that had destroyed Ahab’s boat and bit off his leg in their previous encounter. Google’s letters are placed on Moby-Dick’s back and the letter “l” is replaced by the whale’s spout.

Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, in 1851, but the novel became world renowned in 1920, and, ever since then, it was screened in numerous countries. Melville’s Moby-Dick has become one of the most chrestomathic works in American literature.