Please help with homework Moby-Dick: What is the meaning of the ship-name

What is the meaning of the ship-name Pequod?  Apart from providing narrative interludes, what is the importance of meetings or “gams” with the many other ships, including the Albatross, Jeroboam, Town-Ho, Virgin, Rose-Bud, Samuel Enderby, Bachelor, Rachel , and Delight?

Does Father Maple’s sermon repeat the Calvinism (“the darkness of blackness”) of Melville’s “Hawthorne and his Mosses.” What is its significance for Moby-Dick?