Moby wild or white whale read. Herman Melville's Moby Dick: An Untimely Masterpiece

"Moby Dick, or the White Whale"(Eng. Moby-Dick, or The Whale,) - the main work of Herman Melville, the final work of the literature of American romanticism. A long novel with numerous lyrical digressions, imbued with biblical imagery and multi-layered symbolism, was not understood and accepted by contemporaries. The rediscovery of Moby Dick happened in the 1920s.

Plot [ | ]

The story is told on behalf of the American sailor Ishmael, who went on a voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain, Ahab (a reference to the biblical Ahab), is obsessed with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bvengeance on the giant white whale, the killer of whalers known as Moby Dick (in the previous voyage due to the fault of the whale Ahab lost his leg and the captain has been using a prosthetic leg ever since.)

Ahab orders the sea to be constantly watched and promises a golden doubloon to whoever spots Moby Dick first. On the ship, ominous events begin to occur. After falling out of a boat while hunting whales and spending the night on a barrel on the high seas, the ship's cabin boy, Pip, goes crazy.

In the end, the Pequod catches up with Moby Dick. The chase continues for three days, during which time the ship's crew tries to harpoon Moby Dick three times, but every day he breaks the whaleboats. On the second day, the Persian harpooner Fedalla dies, who predicted to Ahab that he would leave before him. On the third day, when the ship is drifting nearby, Ahab hits Moby Dick with a harpoon, gets tangled in a line and drowns. Moby Dick completely destroys the boats and their crew, except for Ishmael. From the impact of Moby Dick, the ship itself, along with everyone who remained on it, sinks.

Ishmael saves empty coffin(prepared in advance for one of the whalers, unused, and then converted into a life buoy), like a cork, pops up next to him - by grabbing onto it, he stays alive. The next day, he is picked up by a passing ship, the Rachel.

The novel contains many digressions from the storyline. In parallel with the development of the plot, the author gives a lot of information, one way or another related to whales and whaling, which makes the novel a kind of "whale encyclopedia". On the other hand, Melville intersperses such chapters with discourses that have a second meaning, symbolic or allegorical, under practical meaning. In addition, he often makes fun of the reader, under the guise of cautionary tales, telling semi-fantastic stories [ what?] .

Historical basis[ | ]

The plot of the novel is largely based on a real incident that happened to the American whaling ship Essex. A vessel with a displacement of 238 tons left the port in Massachusetts in 1819. For almost a year and a half, the crew beat whales in the South Pacific until one large one (estimated at about 26 meters in length at normal size about 20 m) the sperm whale did not put an end to this. On November 20, 1820, in the Pacific Ocean, a whaling ship was rammed several times by a giant whale.

20 sailors on three tiny boats reached the uninhabited island of Henderson, which is now part of the British Pitcairn Islands. The island had a large colony of seabirds, which became the sailors' only source of food. The further paths of the sailors were divided: three remained on the island, and most decided to go in search of the mainland. They refused to land on the nearest known islands - they were afraid of local tribes of cannibals, they decided to swim to South America. Hunger, thirst and cannibalism killed almost everyone. On February 18, 1821, 90 days after the death of the Essex, a whaleboat was picked up by the British whaler Indian, in which the first mate of the Essex, Chase and two other sailors, escaped. Five days later, Captain Pollard and another sailor, who were in the second whaleboat, were rescued by the Dauphin whaling ship. The third whaleboat was lost in the ocean. The three sailors who remained on Henderson Island were rescued on April 5, 1821. Of the 20 crew members of the Essex, only 8 survived. First Officer Chase wrote a book about the incident.

The novel was also based on Melville's own experience in whaling - in 1840, as a cabin boy, he went sailing on the Akushnet whaling ship, on which he spent more than a year and a half. Some of his then-acquaintances ended up on the pages of the novel as characters, for example, Melvin Bradford, one of the co-owners of Akushnet, is introduced in the novel under the name of Bildad, co-owner of Pequod.

Influence [ | ]

Returning from oblivion in the 2nd third of the 20th century, Moby Dick has firmly become one of the most textbook works of American literature.

A descendant of G. Melville, working in the genres of electronic music, pop, rock and punk, took a pseudonym in honor of the white whale - Moby.

The world's largest chain of cafes Starbucks borrowed its name and logo motif from the novel. When choosing a name for the network, the name "Pequod" was first considered, but it was eventually rejected, and the name chosen for Ahab's first mate was Starbuck.

Screen adaptations [ | ]

The novel has been repeatedly filmed in different countries since 1926. The best known adaptation of the book is the 1956 John Huston film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. Ray Bradbury co-wrote the screenplay for this film; subsequently, Bradbury wrote the story "Banshee" and the novel "Green Shadows, White Whale", dedicated to working on the script. At the end of 2010, Timur Bekmambetov was going to start shooting a new film based on the book.

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Today we will consider the most famous arbitrariness of the American writer Herman Melville, or rather his summary. "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a novel based on real events. It was written in 19651.

About the book

"Moby Dick, or the White Whale" (we will present a summary below) became the main work of G. Melville, a representative of American romanticism. This novel is replete with numerous lyrical arguments, has references to biblical stories, replete with symbols. Perhaps that is why he was not accepted by his contemporaries. Neither critics nor readers understood the full depth of the work. Only in the 20s of the 20th century, the novel seemed to be rediscovered, paying tribute to the author's talent.

History of creation

The plot of the novel was based on real events, which can be confirmed by brief retelling. Herman Melville ("Moby Dick" became the pinnacle of his work) took the case of the Essex ship as the basis for the work. This ship went fishing in 1819 in Massachusetts. For a whole year and a half, the crew was engaged in whale hunting, until one day a huge sperm whale put an end to this. On November 20, 1820, the ship was rammed several times by a whale.

After the shipwreck, 20 sailors survived, who managed to get on boats to Henderson Island, which was uninhabited in those years. After some time, some of the survivors went to look for the mainland, the rest remained on the island. Travelers for 95 days wandered at sea. Only two survived - the captain and another sailor. They were picked up by a whaling ship. They were the ones who told what happened to them.

In addition, the personal experience of Melville, who sailed on a whaling ship for a year and a half, also got into the pages of the novel. Many of his then acquaintances turned out to be the heroes of the novel. So, one of the co-owners of the ship appears in the work under the name of Bildad.

Summary: "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" (Melville)

Main character- young man Ishmael. He is experiencing severe financial problems, and life on land gradually begins to bother him. Therefore, he decides to go on a whaling ship, where you can earn good money, and it’s impossible to get bored at sea at all.

Nantucket is the oldest American port city. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, it ceased to be the largest fishing center, it was replaced by younger ones. However, it is important for Ishmael to hire a ship here.

On the way to Nantucket, Ishmael stops at another port town. Here you can meet savages on the streets who have landed on ships on some unknown island. Buffet counters are made from huge whale jaws. And the preachers in the churches climb up on the pulpit.

At the inn, the young man meets Queequeg, a native harpooner. Very quickly they become good friends, so they decide to enter the ship together.

"Pequod"

Still only at the very beginning of our summary. "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a novel that begins in the port city of Nantucket, where Ishmael and his new friend are hired on the Pequod. The whaler is preparing for a round-the-world voyage that will last 3 years.

Ishmael becomes aware of the history of the captain of the ship. Ahab on the last voyage, having entered the fight with a whale, lost his leg. After this event, he became melancholic and sullen and spends most of his time in his cabin. And on the way from the voyage, as the sailors say, he was even out of his mind for a while.

However, Ishmael did not attach much importance to this and some other strange events associated with the ship. Having met a suspicious stranger on the pier, who began to predict the death of the Pequod and its entire crew, the young man decided that this was just a beggar and a swindler. And the obscure dark figures that boarded the ship at night, and then seemed to dissolve on it, he considered simply the fruit of his fantasies.

Captain

The oddities associated with the captain and his ship are also confirmed by the summary. "Moby Dick" continues with Ahab leaving his cabin only a few days after the start of the voyage. Ishmael saw him and was struck by the gloominess of the captain and the seal of incredible inner pain on his face.

Especially so that the one-legged captain could maintain balance during a strong pitching, small holes were cut in the deck boards, into which he placed his artificial leg, made from the jaw of a sperm whale.

The captain gives the order to the sailors to look out for the white whale. Ahab does not communicate with anyone, he is closed and requires from the team only unquestioning obedience and instant execution of his orders. Many of these commands cause confusion among subordinates, but the captain refuses to explain anything. Ishmael understands that some dark secret lurks in the gloomy thoughtfulness of the captain.

First time at sea

"Moby Dick" is a book, a brief summary of which tells about the sensations experienced by a person who first went to sea. Ishmael closely observes life on a whaling ship. Melville gives this description a lot of space on the pages of his will. Here you can find descriptions of all kinds of auxiliary tools, and rules, and basic methods of whale hunting, and methods by which spermaceti is extracted from fish - a substance consisting of animal fat.

There are chapters in the novel that are devoted to various books about whales, reviews of the structures of whale tails, fountains, and a skeleton. There are even references to figurines of sperm whales made of stone, bronze and other materials. Throughout the novel, the author inserts information of various kinds about these extraordinary mammals.

Golden doubloon

Our summary continues. "Moby Dick" is a novel that is interesting not only for its reference materials and information about whales, but also an exciting storyline. So, one day, Ahab gathers the entire crew of the Pequod, who sees a golden doubloon nailed to the mast. The captain says that the coin will go to the one who first notices the approach of the white whale. This albino sperm whale is known among whalers as Moby Dick. He terrifies sailors with his ferocity, huge size and unprecedented cunning. His skin is scarred with harpoon scars, as he often fought people, but invariably emerged victorious. This incredible rebuff, which usually ended in the death of the ship and the crew, taught the whalers not to try to catch him.

About the terrible meeting of Ahab and Moby Dick tells a summary of the chapters. G. Melville describes how the captain lost his leg when, finding himself among the wreckage of the ship, he rushed in a rage at the sperm whale with one knife in his hand. After this story, the captain announces that he is going to pursue the white whale until its carcass is on the ship.

Upon hearing this, Starbuck, the first mate, confronts the captain. He says that it is unreasonable to take revenge on a being deprived of reason for the actions that it has committed, obeying blind instinct. Moreover, there is blasphemy in it. But the captain, and then the whole team, begin to see the embodiment of universal evil in the image of a white whale. They send curses to the sperm whale and drink for his death. Only one cabin boy, Negro Pip, prays to God, asking for protection from these people.

The pursuit

The summary of the work “Moby Dick, or the White Whale” tells how the Pequod first met sperm whales. Boats begin to be lowered into the water, and at that moment those very mysterious dark ghosts appear - Ahab's personal team, recruited from immigrants from South Asia. Until that moment, Ahab kept them hidden from everyone, keeping them in the hold. The unusual sailors are led by a middle-aged, sinister-looking man named Fedalla.

Despite the fact that the captain is only chasing Moby Dick, he cannot completely stop hunting other whales. Therefore, the ship hunts tirelessly, and the barrels of spermaceti are filled. When the Pequod meets with other ships, the captain first asks if the sailors have seen a white whale. Most often, the answer is a story about how Moby Dick killed or maimed someone from the team.

New ominous prophecies are also heard: a distraught sailor from an epidemic-infected ship warns the crew against the fate of blasphemers who risked entering the battle with the embodiment of God's wrath.

One day, fate brings the Pequod to another ship, whose captain harpooned Moby Dick, but as a result was seriously injured and lost his arm. Ahab is talking to this man. It turns out that he does not think to take revenge on the whale. However, he reports the coordinates where the ship collided with the sperm whale.

Starbuck again tries to warn the captain, but all in vain. Ahab orders a harpoon to be forged from the hardest steel that is on the ship. And for tempering a formidable weapon there is blood three harpooners.

Prophecy

More and more for the captain and his team becomes a symbol of evil Moby Dick (Moby Dick). Short description focuses on the events taking place with Queequeg, Ishmael's friend. The harpooner falls ill from hard work in dampness and feels that death is imminent. He asks Ishmael to make a funeral boat for him, on which his body would glide over the waves. When Queequeg is on the mend, they decide to convert the boat into a life buoy.

At night, Fedalla tells the captain a terrible prophecy. Before he dies, Ahab sees two hearses: one made by a non-human hand, the other from American wood. And only hemp can cause death to the captain. But before that, Fedalla himself would have to die. Ahab does not believe - he is too old to be on the gallows.

Approximation

More and more signs that the ship is approaching the place where Moby Dick lives. A summary of the chapters describes a ferocious storm. Starbuck is convinced that the captain will lead the ship to destruction, but he does not dare to kill Ahab, trusting fate.

In a storm, the ship meets another ship - "Rachel". Its captain reports that he followed Moby Dick the day before, and asks Ahab to help in search of his 12-year-old son, who was carried away along with the whaleboat. However, the captain of the Pequod refuses.

Finally, a white hump is seen in the distance. For three days the ship is chasing the whale. And now the Pequod catches up with him. However, Moby Dick immediately attacks and bites the captain's whaleboat in two. With great difficulty, he manages to save. The captain is ready to continue hunting, but the whale is already swimming away from them.

By morning, the sperm whale is overtaken again. Moby Dick crashes two more whaleboats. Sinking sailors are brought aboard, it turns out that Fedalla is missing. Ahab begins to be afraid, he remembers the prophecy, but he can no longer refuse the persecution.

Third day

Beckons captain Moby Dick. A summary of all the chapters paints pictures of gloomy omens, but Ahab is obsessed with his desire. The whale again destroys several whaleboats and tries to leave, but Ahab continues to pursue him on the only boat. Then the sperm whale turns around and rams the Pequod. The ship begins to sink. Ahab throws the last harpoon, the wounded whale abruptly goes into the depths and carries away the captain, entangled in the hemp rope. The ship is pulled into a funnel, and the last whaleboat, where Ishmael is located, is pulled into it.

denouement

Only Ishmael is left alive from the entire crew of the Melville ship. Moby Dick (a brief summary confirms this), wounded, but alive, goes into the depths of the ocean.

The main character miraculously manages to survive. The only thing that survived from the ship was the failed and tarred coffin of his friend. It is on this structure that the hero spends a day on the high seas until sailors from the Rachel ship find him. The captain of this ship still hoped to find his lost child.

- great reading choice

Pros: great storyline

Disadvantages: -

English Moby-Dick, or The Whale, 1851

Year of first publication: 1851
Original language: English
Authors: Herman Melville
Screen adaptations: Moby Dick: Monster Hunt (2010), Moby Dick (1956), Moby Dick Rehearsal

The literary classic called "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a story written by the famous writer - Herman Mulville. It is based on real facts and information that happened many years ago. The story was published back in the distant - one thousand and sixty-fifth year. The author of this work singled out for himself the fundamental genre - American romanticism. In the text there are reminders of biblical motives, a lot of philosophical conjectures of his own. Perhaps, therefore, not everyone liked this novelty, because of the abundance in it of "smart" and incomprehensible thoughts, then citizens. It was criticized and not accepted by people. Only after many years, as it always happens, the reader fully appreciated it. Perhaps because the writer of this story had the ability to express his opinions outside the box, think and reason "differently", feel differently, and was more advanced and versatile, as well as smarter than the then inhabitants. The storyline is based, I repeat again, on real events, Herman decided to play on the situation that happened with the Essex ship. The ship was engaged in the fact that for one and a half years, killing whales for the sake of earning. But, one day, namely on the twentieth of November in one thousand eight hundred and twenty, justice finally triumphed. One huge sperm whale put an end to this unprofitable fishery. He hit this boat several times, and with such force, the ship sank. But, twenty guys of this "hellish", useless boat, still managed to escape. They were able to get to one of the islands in lifeboats, but not everyone was able to overcome the long journey to land. As a result, only two scoundrels could survive. This, of course, is the captain and one of his sailors. Since they had to sail the sea for as many as ninety-five days. After some time, these two people - were picked up by one of the ships, which was also engaged in "hellish" fishing - killed such wonderful animals as sperm whales. By the way, I was very disappointed by the fact that the author of the text himself was engaged in whaling, and as many as one and a half year walked the oceans in search of these creatures. The name of the co-owner of this crew is indicated as Bildada. The name of the protagonist is indicated as Ishmael. He goes to sea, oceans, due to lack of funds, and therefore life on land does not seem acceptable to him. he decides that he will definitely not be bored at sea, and this will also allow him to make good money. All the events of this creation unfold in one of the former major industrial centers of America, a port town called Nantucket. Soon, the boy meets a guy named Queequeg, her profession is a harpooner.

They become good comrades, friends. The boat on which the friends are going to go out into the ocean is called the Pecord. By the way, their journey was supposed to last a little, a lot, but for three whole years, can you imagine? When friends get on board, they get to know the rest of the men. And after that, they become aware of the tragedy of his life. His name is Ahab. The guys find out that when he was on his last voyage, he lost his leg because he entered into an unequal fight with this animal. Because of this, for obvious reasons, his character is very deteriorated. Ahab was unfriendly and sullen, he had very little contact with anyone, including his group. And in recent days, he almost did not leave his cabin, spent almost all his free and working time there. Some even stated that after this happened to him - the loss of a leg, he lost his "reason" for a while. But, walking around the port, before going up to the Pekord, he met a layman who told him that the Pekord boat would be wrecked and broken. But, he suggested that this little local "crazy", a beggar, or simply a swindler, and tried to put these thoughts out of his head. And then, when at night he began to notice some strange figures that climbed on board, then again and again disappeared without a trace, he did not take them at face value and tried to get them out of his head. He thought, and convinced himself. that these are only the fruits of his fantasies and inappropriate, unconscious fears that should not appear in the head and thoughts of a real and brave hunter. But, he did not take into account that there is such a thing as intuition. A ship and its people. Continuation overview content of the novel. When it finally set sail and went out into the sea-ocean, the sailors began to notice that he did not indulge them with attention. He left his habitat - his cabin, only a few days after sailing. Everyone on board, including the main character, immediately noticed that he was gloomy and unfriendly. But, on the other hand, they saw in his eyes a huge seal, pain and longing. But, they did not understand the underlying reason for this. He demanded from the "staff" laconicism and actual, complete, total obedience to his orders. He did not tolerate slow and sluggish (incomprehensible) and long-thinking employees. And his "decrees" were not always clear to young boys. To put it mildly, some of them were, after all, strange. For him, due to the fact that he is, for the day, an invalid, due to the fact that he lost his leg, special holes were made in the deck so that he could maintain balance and insert his stick there, or rather, it is called - your cane. The main character began to realize that he was hiding some kind of secret. This story, which is able to captivate and fully capture your attention, is that there is a very large amount of interesting information about sperm whales, and life and features. But also well-thought-out, exciting plot, which does not make it possible to predict further development. And constantly keeps in suspense. As they say in this case, fuels interest in reading. One day, Ahab gathers his entire sea family together on one of the decks. They see one of the gold coins that is nailed to a wooden mast. And then, he announces, one hundred she will go to the one who first sees, simply, looks out for him in the sea-ocean. He replied that his name is very interesting name. And he is fierce and terrifies each of the guys, without exception, with only one of his appearances. He has many wounds and cuts on his skin, because he is unusually cunning and can get around everyone. And everyone who tried to catch him by force crashed and died, or, simply - quite simply, drowned after another drowning of one of the ships. Therefore, no one goes looking for him anymore and does not dare to encroach on his catching. But, he apparently had other plans for this abode of the deep sea - "Moby Dick". The white whale, in truth, is a miracle of incredible beauty. And dare to kill this creature only a real barbarian, which he was, and each of his team. And they paid the full price for their intentions. You won't feel sorry for them in the slightest. after reading this creation, you can plunge into the world of fierce struggle between us and nature. To realize how greedy and unpleasant any of us can be, to look from the outside at how revenge drives thoughts and what it leads to, ultimately us.

Well, Morinism should be like this, the harsh philosophy of the ocean, 20,000 leagues, Arthur Gordon Pym, The Ghost Ship. Everything good stories, the main thing is to learn how to work with information.

Grade 4 out of 5 stars by Sir Shury 24.08.2018 08:45

A mixed bag, not an easy book.

Grade 3 out of 5 stars by Anya 27.05.2017 01:57

You didn't read this book about that. This is not a novel.
“Yes, Jed, a hundred and fifty years after Melville wrote Moby Dick, it looks like you were the first to understand what he was talking about.” She raised her glasses. “Congratulations.
“Good,” I replied. “I should get something for this. A beautiful letter, for example.
– It seems to me that a book called "Spiritually Wrong Enlightenment", which begins with the words "Call me Ahab", will not attract much attention in the literary world.
“Oh, my letter was crying.”
These are words from Jed McKenna's book Spiritually Wrong Enlightenment. Well you got it

Alexey 04/01/2017 01:40

I support dbushoff. +1

Grade 3 out of 5 stars from Ru5 01.06.2016 22:24

Barely mastered.
A lot of ranting and a lot of violence against whales. But the meaning of the book is laid, I do not argue.
My opinion and assessment fully reflects the review written below, I will not repeat.

Grade 3 out of 5 stars from Ksana_Spring 20.03.2016 13:42

The book has remained ambiguous for me. On the one hand, I really liked the storyline itself. The scale of what is happening is so captivating and absorbing that you simply unimaginably want to plunge into its gloomy atmosphere of madness and comprehend the whole essence of what is happening, eagerly reading page after page, if not for one "but"! The whole book is replete with endless references, reveling in vast encyclopedic knowledge, pathos of appeals and conclusions that only cut the plot into grains, dissolving it in the author’s boundless knowledge, which in fact do not carry any semantic load and their value for the book is very doubtful, they are rather drawn to analysis books, scientific work, anything, but in no way complement the plot, which sometimes itself in a detailed description, down to the smallest detail of something insignificant, is so tiring and does not move forward that it simply infuriates, and sometimes it makes you so angry that you want to shoot a book on the wall, although on the contrary, somewhere, namely at the end, the rapid development and no less rapid denouement simply leaves one in confusion. And not only the denouement leaves questions. Why is the team not worked out so well, at least Queequeg? What happened to him after entering the Pequod? it seems that the ship has depersonalized him, and Ishmael and the team. What have they been doing all this time? Probably read about Melville's "whale fish", poisonous? I know! try to read a book in which, at the expense of an excellent plot, a separate dry pseudo-scientific book unfolds! You could safely throw out everything superfluous and it would already be a story on 150-200 pages that succinctly describes what is happening. The only reason I finished reading the book is undoubtedly one of the outstanding and exciting stories, unfortunately dissolved in a huge amount of information that I do not need, presented by the author in an outrageous pathos form of irresistible complacency. Based on this, my assessment, it is motivated.

Grade 3 out of 5 stars from dbushoff

The sperm whale is one of the mysterious and peculiar marine mammals, about which legends and myths were composed in ancient times...
Perhaps, no sea animal has generated so many thoughts, fantastic stories and beliefs, admiration and fear.

Victor Sheffer. "Year of the Whale"

I. "White Whale"

The book of the famous American marine painter Herman Melville "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" (1851), full of sorrow, passion and rage, is considered by most readers to be semi-real and almost fantastic works. However, the author of this amazing book, which is still rightfully called the “novel of the century”, is a professional sailor and whaler. With deep knowledge of the matter, he clearly and very thoroughly described the whale hunt. This novel is a kind of "whaling encyclopedia".

Let us briefly recall the content of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale". Ishmael, on whose behalf the story is being told, a young man, disappointed in life and combining curiosity with a passion for the sea, sets sail as a sailor on the Pequod whaler. Shortly after sailing, it turns out that this flight is not quite ordinary. The captain of the Pyokoda, looking like a madman, Ahab, having lost a leg in a fight with the famous White Whale-Moby Dick, went out into the ocean to find his enemy and give him a decisive battle. He tells the team that he intends to pursue the White Whale "and behind the Cape of Good Hope, and behind Cape Horn, and behind the Norwegian Maelstrom, and behind the flames of death." Nothing will make him give up the chase. “Here is the purpose of your voyage, people! he shouts in furious fury. “To chase the White Whale around both hemispheres until he releases a fountain of black blood and his white carcass sways on the waves!” Captivated by the captain's furious energy, the Pequod's crew swear hatred for the White Whale, and Ahab nails a golden doubloon to the mast, destined for whoever sees Moby Dick first.

The Pequod goes around the world, hunting whales along the way and exposing herself to all the dangers of whaling, but not for a moment losing sight of her ultimate goal. Ahab skillfully guides the ship along the main whale routes, asking the captains of oncoming whalers about Moby Dick. Meeting with the White Whale in his "possessions", near the equator. It is preceded by a series of ill-fated signs that threaten misfortune. The fight with Moby Dick lasts three days and ends with the defeat of the Pequod. The White Whale smashes the whaleboats, drags Ahab into the abyss of the sea, and finally sinks the ship with the whole crew. The epilogue tells how the narrator, the only survivor of the crew of the Pequod, escaped death by grabbing a buoy and was picked up by another whaler.

This is the plot of Moby Dick. But who suggested it to the writer?

The history of whaling shows that in early XIX centuries, among the Scandinavian, Canadian and American harpooners who hunted in the Pacific Ocean, there was a rumor about a giant albino sperm whale that attacked not only the whaleboats chasing it, but also whalers. There were many stories about the evil temper of this "white giant of the Seven Seas." Some said that the aggressor sperm whale attacks a whaling ship without any reason, others argued that he rushes to attack only after a harpoon is thrust into his back, still others testified that the White Whale, even breaking his head, continued again and again ram the side of the ship, and when it sank, he circled the surface, biting the floating wreckage of the ship and the survivors.

At the beginning of the 800s of the last century, among the famous and famous whalers of both hemispheres of our planet, there would have been at least a hundred who could swear on the Bible that they had seen the White Whale. They even knew his name - Mocha Dick. It was called so because it was first met off the coast of Chile, off the island of Mocha. The harpooners' stories about the albino sperm whale, embellished with the fantasy of those whalers who did not see it, formed into legends about the robber whale, which were passed from mouth to mouth. In them, it is always a large male, about 20 meters long and weighing at least 70 tons, lonely, gloomy and aggressive, unable to get along with his fellows. In some legends, the skin of this gigantic sperm whale is white as snow, in others it has a gray-white hue, in the third - the whale is light gray, in the fourth - on the head of the sperm whale, whose color is black, there is a longitudinal white strip two meters wide. The stories of whalers of the past that have come down to us testify that Mocha Dik rampaged in the expanses of the oceans for exactly 39 years. On the combat account of the albino giant, there were three whalers and two cargo ships sent to the bottom, three barges, four schooners, eighteen whaleboats and boats and 117 human lives ... Whalers of the past generation believed that Mocha Dick was killed in 1859 by Swedish harpooners in the southern part Pacific Ocean. It was said that when the harpoon pierced his lung, he did not offer any resistance to his pursuers: he was already too old and exhausted in battles with ships. In the carcass of Mocha Dik, the Swedes counted 19 harpoon points and saw that the sperm whale was blind in the right eye.

Such stories, often embellished by human imagination, formed into legends about the cannibal whale, the fighter whale. Many of the hero whales have also been given other names: Timor Jack, Peita Tom, and New Zealand Tom.

This is the essence of the numerous narratives of the last century and the legends about the White Whale. Herman Melville, being a whaler himself, could not let them pass by, and, apparently, they were put by him at the basis of his magnificent novel. But are they alone?

II. The Essex Tragedy

Like people, ships go out of life in different ways. Their natural death - dismantling for scrap. Such is the fate of most of the ships built and sailed their age. Like the people who created them, ships often fall victim to fatal circumstances - the elements of the sea, war, malicious intent, human mistakes. Most of the ships perished on the rocks and underwater reefs near the shore. Many have found their grave at great depths in the ocean. The coordinates of the place of death of most of them are known to insurers, maritime historians and hunters for sunken treasures. But in the world annals of shipwrecks there are unusual and even incredible cases of shipwrecks. These include the ill-fated incident with the American whaler Essex.

This small three-masted barque of 238 tons under the command of Captain George Pollard on August 12, 1819, set off from Nantucket Island, which is located 50 miles northeast of New York, to the southern part of the Atlantic to fish for whales.

The ship's voyage was designed for two years: first, whale hunting in the South Atlantic, then in the Pacific Ocean. On the second day of the voyage, when the Essex entered the Gulf Stream, a sudden squall from the south-west strongly heeled the ship, it touched the water with yardarms, two whaleboats and a galley superstructure were washed overboard. On August 30, the Essex approached the island of Flora, which is northwest of Azores, and replenished the stocks of water and vegetables. After 16 days, the ship was already at Cape Verde.

On December 18, the Essex reached the latitude of Cape Horn, but strong storms did not give the whalers the opportunity to go around it for five weeks to enter the Pacific Ocean. Only in mid-January 1820, they approached the coast of Chile and anchored off the island of St. Mary, a traditional meeting place for whalers. After a little rest"Essex" began fishing. Eight whales were killed, which yielded 250 barrels of blubber.

For almost a year the Essex had been chasing whales. The hunt was successful, except for the loss of one whaleboat, broken by the tail of a sperm whale. On November 20, 1820, the Essex was near the equator at 119 degrees west longitude, when a herd of sperm whales was noticed from her mast in the early morning. Three whaleboats were launched, the first commanded by Captain Pollard himself, the second by First Mate Chase, and the third by Second Navigator Joy. Three people remained on the Essex: a cook, a carpenter and a senior sailor. When the distance between whaleboats and sperm whales was reduced to 200 meters, sperm whales, noticing the danger, went under water. One of them surfaced a few minutes later. Chase on his whaleboat approached him from the side of the tail and plunged a harpoon into his back. But before starting to go into the depths, the sperm whale turned over on its side and hit the side of the whaleboat with its fin. Water rushed into the hole formed at the moment when the whale began to go into the depths. Chase had no choice but to cut the harpoon line with an axe. A sperm whale with a harpoon sticking out of its side was freed, and the whaleboat rowers, having thrown off their shirts and jackets, tried to close a hole in the board with them and pumped out water. The half-submerged whaleboat barely made it to the Essex. Chase ordered the damaged ship to be raised on deck and directed the whaler towards two whaleboats barely visible on the horizon. The captain's first mate hoped to put a temporary patch on board the pierced whaleboat and continue the hunt. When the repair was almost completed, Chace saw that a sperm whale floated to the surface of the water from the windward side of the Essex, its length, as Chase determined, exceeded 25 meters, the whale was more than half the length of the Essex.

Having released two or three fountains, the sperm whale again plunged into the abyss, then again surfaced and swam towards the whaler. Chase shouted to the sailor to put the rudder on board. His command was carried out, but the ship, with a weak wind and half-retracted sails, did not have time to turn aside. There was a powerful dull blow of the head of a sperm whale on the side, while none of the sailors standing on the deck could stay on their feet. Immediately, the whalers heard the sound of water pouring into the hold of the Essex through the broken planks of the skin. The whale surfaced at the side of the ship, apparently stunned by the blow, he shook his huge head, clapped his lower jaw. Chase quickly ordered the sailors to set up the pump and begin to pump out the water. But not even three minutes had passed before a second, even stronger blow was heard on the side of the ship. This time, the sperm whale, taking a run in front of the Essex, hit him with his head in the right cheekbone. The bilge boards of the side were dented inward and partially broken. Now the water was flooding the ship through two holes. It became clear to the whalers that the Essex could not be saved. Chase managed to pull off the spare whaleboat from the keel blocks and launch it into the water. The sailors who remained on board loaded some of the navigational instruments and maps into it. As soon as the whaleboat with people moved away from the sinking ship, it fell on board with a terrible creak. Only ten minutes had passed since the second strike...

At this time, another harpooned sperm whale was dragging Captain Pollard's whaleboat on the line, and the whale, which was wounded by the navigator Joy, fell off the line, and the whaleboat headed for the Essex.

When the captain saw on the horizon that the masts of his ship had instantly disappeared, he cut the harpoon line and ordered the crew of his whaleboat to row with all their might in the direction where the Essex had just been seen. Approaching the ship lying on board, Pollard tried to save it. The team chopped and cut the tackle of the standing rigging of the masts, but, having freed themselves from them, the ship remained on board. It did not immediately sink to the bottom due to the air remaining in its premises. But the water, filling the hold, displaced the air from it, and the Essex slowly sank into the waves. Nevertheless, the sailors managed to cut through the side of the ship, which was almost flooded with water, and get inside. From the Essex, in three whaleboats, the crew loaded two barrels of biscuits, about 260 gallons of water, two compasses, some carpentry tools, and a dozen live elephant tortoises they had taken from the Galapagos Islands.

Soon the Essex sank... Three whaleboats remained in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean, in which twenty sailors were accommodated. The nearest land was from them to the south at a distance of 1400 miles, the Marquesas Islands. But Captain Pollard knew about the notoriety of the inhabitants of these islands, he knew that their inhabitants were cannibals. Therefore, he preferred to go southeast, to the shores of South America, despite the fact that it was almost 3,000 miles away. Pollard and Joey's whaleboats carried seven men each, Chase, who had the oldest and most dilapidated whaleboat, took five sailors with him. Fresh water and provisions, with difficulty obtained from the sinking Essex, the captain divided strictly according to the number of people. The first days of whaleboats sailed in visibility from each other. Each sailor received half a pint of water and one biscuit a day. On the eleventh day of the voyage, a turtle was killed, a fire was lit in its shell, the meat was lightly fried and divided into twenty parts. So another week went by. During the oncoming storm, the whaleboats lost sight of each other. A month later, Captain Pollard's whaleboat approached the tiny uninhabited island of Dasi. Here the sailors were able to replenish their meager food supplies with sea molluscs and killed five birds. The situation was worse with water: it flowed in a barely noticeable stream from a crevice of the rock at low tide and was very unpleasant in taste. Three people expressed a desire to stay on this rocky island, instead of experiencing the pangs of thirst and hunger in a whaleboat half-flooded. Two days later, Pollard with three sailors moved away from the island and continued sailing to the southeast. To the remaining three, he promised to send help if his whaleboat got to land.

This odyssey of the Essex whalers has been tragic! The whaleboat, commanded by navigator Joy, did not make it to shore. Nothing is known about him. In the other two whaleboats, people went crazy from thirst and hunger and died. The case ended in cannibalism ...

Ninety-six days after the death of the Essex, the Dauphin whaling ship from Nantucket picked up a whaleboat in the ocean, where Captain Pollard and sailor Ramsdell, who had lost their human form, but survived, were found. They sailed and rowed 4,600 miles.

Chase and two sailors were rescued by the English brig Indian on the 91st day of sailing, their journey in the ocean was 4,500 miles. On June 11, 1821, 102 days later, the British warship Surrey took three Robinsons from Pollard's crew off Dasi Island.

Such is the sad story of the American whaler "Essex" ... But it was she who prompted Herman Melville to write a novel about whalers. As you know, Herman Melville stopped attending school at the age of fifteen and, after serving for some time as a clerk in a bank, went on a sailing ship to England. Returning four years later to New York, he tried several professions on the coast, in January 1841 he again went to sea, enlisting as a sailor on the Akushnet whaling ship, on which he sailed for two years. Once, while a ship was anchored off the Marquesas Islands, he fled ashore and lived for several months among the Polynesians. Then he continued sailing on the Australian whaler "Lucy-Anne". On this ship he took part in the rebellion of the team. The rebels were landed in Tahiti, where Melville spent a whole year with a short break, during which he made another whaling voyage. After that, he entered as a sailor on the American warship United States and, having sailed for another year, returned to his homeland in the fall of 1844. Returning home, Melville immediately took up literary activities. He worked continuously on Moby Dick for a number of years, and before finishing and publishing it, he published Typei (1846), Omu (1847), Redburn and Mardi » (1849).

Moby Dick was released in New York in 1851. Few Soviet readers know that ten years earlier, in July 1841, the Akushnet whaler with Herman Melville accidentally met in the ocean with the Lima whaler, on which William Chase, the son of Owen Chase from the Essex, was on board.

For whalers of the last century, the meeting of two ships in the ocean was a joyful event for them, a real holiday in their hard and dangerous work, for three or four days the teams exchanged visits to each other on the ship, drank, walked, sang, shared news, exchanged experience and all sorts of maritime stories. It so happened that in Chace's locker there was a printed edition of the memoirs of the Essex, written and published by his father in New York six months after the ill-fated odyssey. William Chase gave the young Melville to read this little terrible confession of his father, read to holes by other whalers. She made such a strong impression on the future writer that he no longer left the younger Chase, asking him about the details that he knew from his father. And it was the incident with the Essex that gave Melville the idea to write a novel about the White Whale. Of course, he was also aware of other cases of sperm whale attacks on whaleboats and ships recorded in marine chronicles.

III. Marine chronicles testify

In July 1840, the British whaling brig Desmond was in the Pacific, 215 miles from Valparais. The cry of the sailor-observer, sitting in the "crow's nest", raised the whole team to their feet. Two miles away, a lone sperm whale was slowly floating on the surface of the water. Nobody from the team has ever seen such a huge whale. The captain ordered to launch two whaleboats. Before the whalers had time to approach the whale within a harnoon throw, the sperm whale, having made a sharp turn, rushed towards them. The British noticed that the color of the whale was rather dark gray than black, and that a three-meter white scar ran on its huge head. The whaleboats tried to get away from the whale approaching them, but did not have time. The sperm whale hit the nearest whaleboat with its head, throwing it several meters into the air. Rowers spilled out of it like peas from a spoon. The fragile little ship sank as a stern under the water, and the whale, turning over on its side and opening its terrible mouth, chewed it into chips. After that, he dived under the water. Fifteen minutes later he surfaced again. And while the second whaleboat was saving the drowning, the whale again rushed to the attack. This time he will dive under the bottom of the whaleboat and

He threw him into the air with a strong blow to his head. Over the surface of the ocean there was a crack of breaking wood and screams of whalers distraught with fear. The sperm whale made a smooth circle and disappeared over the horizon. The brig "Desmond" approached the scene of the tragedy and rescued their whalers. Two of them died from their wounds.

In August 1840, five hundred miles south of where the brig Desmond lost two of her whaleboats, the Russian barque Sarepta sighted a lone sperm whale. Two whaleboats were launched into the water, which, having successfully harpooned the whale, began to tow its carcass to the shore. They were three miles from the Sarepta when a large gray sperm whale appeared. He swam at great speed for about a mile between the Sarepta and the whaleboats towing the dead whale, then emerged from the water and fell on his belly with a deafening noise. After that, the sperm whale launched an attack on the whaleboats. The first he smashed into chips with a blow to his head. Then the second whaleboat began to attack. The foreman of this whaleboat, having understood the intention of the whale, managed to put his ship behind the carcass of the killed sperm whale. The attack failed. The rowers, having cut the harpoon line, leaned with all their might on the oars and rushed to seek salvation on the Sarepta, which slowly circled around the dead whale. But the gray sperm whale did not leave the prey of Russian whalers, he guarded it. Deciding not to tempt fate, the sailors went south. Two days later, an American whaler from Nantucket Island noticed a harpooned sperm whale and proceeded to butcher its carcass.

In May 1841, the whaler "John Day" from Bristol hunted whales in the South Atlantic, between Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands. At that moment, when the whale oil of a freshly butchered whale was cooked on the ship, a giant sperm whale surfaced from the depths a hundred meters from the side. gray color. He almost completely jumped out of the water, stood for a few seconds on his tail and fell into the waves with a deafening noise. There were three whaleboats at the side of the John Day. The sperm whale, having swum a few hundred meters away, seemed to be waiting for them. The whaler's first mate managed to approach the sperm whale on his whaleboat from the side of the tail and accurately throw a harpoon. The wounded whale rushed to the depths, a line was swept out of the barrel with a whistle, then a sharp jerk - and the whaleboat at a speed of almost 40 kilometers rushed along the waves after the whale in tow. The sperm whale dragged the whaleboat for three miles, then stopped, surfaced and, making a turn, rushed to attack the whalers. The senior assistant, who commanded the whaleboat, gave the command to row back. But it was too late: the sperm whale, although it did not have time to deliver an accurate blow with its head to the bottom of the whaleboat, turned it upside down with a keel and with two or three blows of its tail turned it into a pile of floating chips. At the same time, two whalers were killed, the rest swam among the wreckage of the whaleboat. The sperm whale swam a hundred meters and waited. But the captain of the "John Day" was not going to let go of such prey, he sent two more whaleboats to the place of the duel. The rowers of the first of them managed to raise a floating line from the surface of the water, attached to the handle of a harpoon sticking out of the back of a sperm whale. Feeling pain, the whale again rushed under the water. A few seconds later, he emerged exactly under the bottom of the third whaleboat, from which they were preparing to throw the second harpoon. With its head, the sperm whale lifted the whaleboat five meters out of the water. By some miracle, all the rowers remained intact, but the whaleboat itself fell headlong into the water and sank. The captain of the John Day decided not to take any more risks, he ordered the commander of the second whaleboat to cut the line and save the rowers of the broken whaleboats. When the wet, exhausted, terrified whalers boarded the John Day, the gigantic gray whale was still at the scene of the fight.

In October 1842 near east coast Japan was attacked by a large gray sperm whale coastal schooner. With a load of timber during a storm, she was carried out into the ocean. As she was returning to shore, a whale appeared two miles away. He dived to the depth, surfaced thirteen minutes later to the surface and rushed after her from the stern. The blow to the head was so strong that the schooner actually lost its stern. Taking several planks of sheathing in its mouth, the sperm whale slowly swam to the left. The ship began to fill with water. The schooner team managed to build a raft from the logs that were filled with holds. Thanks to the load of the timber, the ship remained afloat, although it sat in the water up to the upper deck. At this time, three whaling ships approached the schooner: the Scottish Chiff, the English Dudley and the Yankees from the port of New Bedford. Their captains decided to put an end to the robber whale, to get rid of Mocha Dick forever. The whalers decided to disperse in different directions and stay within sight until the sperm whale comes to the surface. They did not have to wait: the whale appeared immediately. He emerged from the water a mile to windward and stood upright on his tail for a few seconds. Then, with a terrible noise and splash, he fell flat on the water and dived again. Immediately, six whaleboats rushed to this place, two from each whaler. Twenty minutes later, the sperm whale surfaced again. He hoped to break the whaleboat with his head, hitting him from under the water. But experienced harpooners, noticing the shadow of a sperm whale in the water, stepped back. Keith missed and a minute later received a harpoon in the back. For the next five minutes, he did not show any signs of life, having gone under water for two dozen meters. Other whaleboats approached the whaleboat from the Yankee whaler, their harpooners holding their deadly spears at the ready. Suddenly, the sperm whale reappeared on the surface of the water, with a blow of its tail it smashed the Scottish whaleboat to pieces and, making an instant turn, rushed to the English whaleboat. But its commander managed to give the rowers the command “taban”: the whaleboat went back, and the sperm whale rushed past without hitting anyone. Behind him, a whaleboat from the Yankee flew by on the line. Again, making a sharp jerk to the side, the whale turned over on its side and, to the horror of everyone who was nearby, took the English whaleboat in its mouth. Raising his head out of the water, the sperm whale began to shake it from side to side, like a cat holding a mouse in its mouth. From under the huge lower jaw of the whale, fragments of wood and the mutilated remains of two sailors who did not have time to jump into the water fell into the water. Then the whale, taking a run, hit the side of a half-flooded, abandoned schooner with its head. Over the ocean there was a crack of breaking boards and logs laid in the hold of the ship. After that, the whale disappeared into the waves.

Aboard the Scottish whaler, they were assisting victims when the sperm whale reappeared on the surface of the ocean. He tried to headbutt the bottom of the Chiff whaler, but missed. Coming out of the water, he tore off the copper fitting from the stem with his back and demolished the bowsprit along with the jib. After that, the sperm whale sailed a few hundred meters into the wind, stopped and began to observe how the three whalers, having raised their sails, went into the ocean in good health.

The American whaler "Pocahontas" from Vineyard Haven was on his way to Cape Horn to start hunting sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean. The ship was off the coast of Argentina when a large herd of whales was spotted at dawn. An hour later, two whaleboats began hunting. One harpoon hit the target - the line behind the wounded whale went under water. The sperm whale soon surfaced and froze on the surface of the ocean. The captain's mate brought the whaleboat close to the whale and prepared to throw the second harpoon. At this time, the whale suddenly turned over on its side, opened its mouth wide, grabbed the whaleboat and bit it in two. People tried to dodge the deadly jaws and fins of the sperm whale. Two of them were badly wounded. The second whaleboat rushed to help. But the whale did not leave, he circled near the wreckage of the broken ship. The second whaleboat delivered the victims to the whaler. This took almost two hours. During this time, the sperm whale continued to circle in the same place, from time to time grabbing oars, a mast and large fragments of boards with its mouth. The rest of the whales huddled in a circle and watched their fellow. The Pocahontas was commanded by Joseph Diaz, a 28-year-old sailor nicknamed "the boy captain." Despite the pleas of the wounded and the persuasions of the old whalers, he did not want to leave the aggressor whale alone and decided to attack him not with a whaleboat, but with a ship. "Pocahontas", having made a maneuver with sails, went to the whale. On the forecastle of a ship with harpoons and spears, sailors crowded in anticipation of a meeting with a whale. Just before the bow of the Pocahontas, the whale dodged to the side, however, one of the harpoons pierced him in the back. Captain Diaz changed tack and again led his ship to the sperm whale lying on the water. The whaler had a two-knot move in a light breeze. When the distance between the ship and the whale was reduced to one hundred meters, the whale itself rushed to the attack. His speed was twice as high. The blow fell on the right cheekbone of the ship, there was a crack of breaking planks of sheathing, a hole formed below the waterline. The team began to pump out the water with a pump. However, despite the continuous work of the sailors, the hold was filled with water. Things began to take a sharp turn: the nearest port (Rio de Janeiro) was 750 miles away.

With great difficulty, Diaz managed to bring his ship to port on the 15th day for repairs.

On August 20, 1851, three sperm whales were found from the mast of the American whaler "Ann Alexander", who hunted whales in the South Atlantic. The ship's captain, John Deblo, ordered two whaleboats to be launched. Half an hour later, the captain's whaleboat approached his victim and hit her. The sperm whale, as usual in such cases, having developed a decent speed, began to leave, whipping tens of meters of a harpoon line out of the barrel. But John Deblo had to stop chasing the wounded whale. The captain saw that after his assistant had put a harpoon into the second whale, it turned around and rushed at the whaleboat and in a moment with its jaws turned it into a pile of floating debris. Fortunately, experienced whalers, knowing the nature of sperm whales well, managed to jump out of the whaleboat into the water. Having cut the line, the captain hurried to the aid of his assistant and his people.

From the Ann Alexander, which was six miles from the scene, they saw what happened to the mate and rowers, and sent a third whaleboat to the scene. However, Captain Deblo was not going to retreat. He placed the rescued rowers equally on three whaleboats and continued to hunt. The captain's assistant rushed to the sperm whale, which destroyed his whaleboat. A wounded sperm whale was lying on the water among the wreckage of a whaleboat, a harpoon with seven tens of meters of tench sticking out of its back. When the whaleboat approached the whale to throw a harpoon, the sperm whale quickly turned over on its side, waved its tail three or four times and grabbed the whaleboat in its mouth. And this time, the rowers managed to jump out of the whaleboat into the water in time, but their fragile boat also turned into a pile of chips. Captain Deblo had no choice but to save people floating in the water. And since there were already 18 people in his whaleboat, there was no question of continuing the hunt. The whalers rowed towards the Ann Alexander, the wounded whale moving behind the overloaded whaleboat. Every minute he could break the whaleboat with a blow of his tail or bite it with his jaws ... But this time, apparently, he decided to change the tactics of the attack and disappeared under water. He surfaced only when all 18 people landed safely on board their base and Deblo sent six rowers to pick up harpoons, lines, barrels from the water, in which lines, oars and everything that could still serve were stored in the bay. This operation was a success, the whale now, ignoring the whaleboat, was watching the base itself. Captain Deblo this time decided to attack the whale from the whaler's deck. And as soon as the sperm whale approached the side of the Ann Alexander, a harpoon stuck into its back. The whale, describing a smooth arc, picked up speed and rushed to the side of the ship. But thanks to a timely and quick maneuver with sails and a sharp turn of the rudder, the Ann Alexander avoided being hit. The whale surfaced and lay on the surface of the water three hundred meters from the ship. Having made a tack and filling the sails with wind, Deblo himself climbed onto the right krambol, holding the harpoon at the ready. But when the ship approached the whale, he quickly went under the water. Five minutes later, a strong blow shook the ship: the sperm whale, taking a run, hit the whaler on the starboard side. The crew had the impression that the ship had hit a reef at full speed. The blow fell almost at the very keel, in the area of ​​​​the foremast. Captain Deblo later recalled that, judging by the force of the blow, the sperm whale had a top speed of 15 knots. Water rushed in a powerful cascade into the gap formed in the side and flooded the hold. It became clear to everyone that the ship was doomed. When the captain ran to his cabin, there was already waist-deep water. He managed to take a chronometer, a sextant and a map, and when he entered the cabin a second time, it was completely flooded with water. The team, taking with them what they had in time, pushed the whaleboats into the water and left the sinking ship. Captain Deblo, trying to remove the compass from the binnacle, did not have time to jump off the deck into the whaleboat and was left alone on the sinking ship. He had to swim to the nearest whaleboat. A few minutes later, the Ann Alexander capsized to starboard. There was enough air in the holds of the ship, and therefore it did not sink immediately. In the morning, with great difficulty, the whalers managed to break through the side and take some provisions from the ship. The crew of the Ann Alexander did not have to endure the horror that the whalers of the Essex endured in 1820. They were just lucky: the next day, both whaleboats were seen from the whaler "Nantucket", which delivered them to the coast of Peru.

The incident with the Ann Alexander soon became the property of the press, whalers of all countries told each other about it, everyone remembered the tragedy that befell the Essex in 1820. And in November 1851, when Herman Melville published his famous book Moby Dick, he received a letter from a whaler friend who told him about the death of Anne Alexander. The writer replied to his friend:

“I have no doubt that it was Moby Dick himself. I wonder if my evil art has revived this monster?

Five months after the events described, the whaler "Rebecca Simms" from New Bradford killed a huge sperm whale, in whose head were sticking chips and pieces of the ship's planks, and in the side were two harpoon tips with the inscription: "Ann Alexander".

In 1947, near the Commander Islands, the Soviet whaler "Enthusiast" harpooned a 17-meter sperm whale. Having received a harpoon in the back, the whale went under water and, dodging, hit the hull of the ship with a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour. As a result of the impact, the end of the propeller shaft was bent and the screw was torn off from it. The whaler's steering wheel was severely bent and disabled. The extracted sperm whale, which weighed 70 tons, had only skin incisions on its head.

In 1948, in Antarctica, a harpooned sperm whale twice attacked the Slava-10 whaler. With the first blow, he made a dent in the hull, and with the second he broke off the propeller blades and bent the shaft.

There are other documented cases of the death of ships as a result of attacks by enraged sperm whales. And how many ships were missing, about the fate of which there is no one to tell!

It should be borne in mind that in the last century, most of the whaling fleet consisted of old, dilapidated ships. Their skins were so eaten away by the sea wood borer that they were not suitable for whaling in the far north or far south, where encounters with ice are inevitable. The rotten skin, of course, was a weak defense against the blows of a 60-70-ton sperm whale, and the death of such ships for this reason was not so rare.

IV. Why are they attacking?

Why do sperm whales attack ships and whaleboats?

Here is how one of the most famous American specialists in marine mammals, Victor Schaeffer, answers this question: “As a zoologist, I cannot help but be interested in the reasons for this behavior of the rogue whale. What is it - physiological or mental pathology?

When a stranger approaches a newly whelped bitch, she immediately attacks him. When a stranger approaches a hungry dog ​​that has just obtained a bone, he reacts in exactly the same way. The need for such a reaction is obvious: it helps to preserve the species. But why would a whale attack a ship?

Perhaps the point here is a strong territorial instinct, which is based on the sexual instinct. Of all the whales, only male sperm whales attack ships. It is also known that of all the large whales, only male sperm whales guard the harem and fight with rivals for the possession of females. And maybe when a “male-ship” enters the territory of such a male, the sperm whale perceives this as a threat to its position and rushes to the attack.

Some zoologists point out that among land animals such battles for territory are fought more often than for the possession of individual females. However, when it comes to the inhabitants of the boundless, three-dimensional water world, the question arises: what determines the territory here?

Perhaps the bully sperm whale attacks the ship only because he sees a rival in it, and the reason for the exaggerated jealousy is an excessively sharpened territorial instinct.

It is possible, of course, that the aggressor whales are indeed "crazy", that is, they were born inferior or, in their whale manner, "lost their minds" under some unusual circumstances. It can also be assumed that these are paranoid whales, which, under the influence of a sense of their inferiority or insolvency, “fly off the coils” ... "

This is the opinion of the marine mammal specialist, and it is up to the reader to agree or disagree with him. But the fact remains: sperm whales have sent whaling ships to the bottom more than once. Thus, Herman Melville does not sin against the truth when he describes the attack of Moby Dick on the ship and the death of the ship and its crew.

V. Jonah of the 19th century

February 1891... The English whaling ship Star of the East is fishing for sperm whales near the Falkland Islands. From the "crow's nest" on the foremast, the cry of the sailor-observer is heard: "Fountain!" Two whaleboats quickly descend into the water. They rush in pursuit of the sea giant. The harpooner of one of them manages to plunge his weapon into the side of the sperm whale the first time. But the whale is only wounded. He rapidly goes to the depth, dragging tens of meters of harpoon line with him. A minute later, he emerges and, in his death throes, throws the whaleboat into the air with a crushing blow. Whalers have to swim to escape. The sperm whale blindly fights, grabbing the fragments of the whaleboat with its lower jaw, whipping up bloody foam...

The second whaleboat, which came to the rescue, finishes off the whale and, two hours later, moored it to the side of the Star of the East.

Of the eight people on the team of the first whaleboat, two are missing - they drowned during a duel with a whale ...

The rest of the day and part of the night is spent cutting up the whale carcass, which is firmly chained to the ship's side. In the morning, the stomach of the sperm whale is lifted by hoists onto the deck of the ship. The huge belly of the butchered whale moves rhythmically. This does not surprise experienced whalers: more than once they had to extract squid, cuttlefish and even three-meter sharks from the stomach of sperm whales. A few blows of a fletcher knife - and the whale's stomach is opened. Inside it lies covered with mucus, crouched, as if in a fit of violent convulsions, the whaler of the "Star of the East" James Bartley, who was listed the day before in the ship's logbook as killed during yesterday's hunt ... He is alive, although his heart is barely beating - he is in a deep faint.

Not believing their eyes, the whalers froze to the limit in astonishment. The ship's doctor orders Bartley to be put on deck and sea water to be poured over him. A few minutes later the sailor opens his eyes and comes to his senses. He does not recognize anyone, convulsing, muttering something incoherent.

"I've lost my mind," the whalers unanimously decide and carry Bartley to the captain's cabin, on the bed. For two weeks, the team surrounds poor Bartley with caress and care. By the end of the third week, Bartley's sanity returns, he is fully recovering from the mental shock that he suffered. Physically, he was almost unharmed and soon returned to his duties on the ship. The only thing that changed his appearance was the unnaturally pale coloration of the skin on his face, neck and hands. These parts of the body seemed to be drained of blood, the skin on them wrinkled. The day finally comes when Bartley tells his team about his experience. The captain of the Star of the East and his first navigator record the testimony of the whaler.

He distinctly remembers being thrown out of the whaleboat. Until now, he hears a deafening sound - the impact of the sperm whale's tail on the water. Bartley did not see the open mouth of the whale, he was immediately surrounded by pitch darkness. He felt himself sliding somewhere along the mucous tube with his feet first. The walls of the pipe convulsively compressed. This feeling did not last long. Soon he felt that he was freer, that he no longer felt the convulsive contractions of the pipe. Bartley tried to find a way out of this living bag, but there was none: his hands ran into viscous, elastic walls covered with hot mucus. It was possible to breathe, but the stinking hot atmosphere that surrounded him affected him. Bartley felt weak and unwell. In absolute silence, he heard the beat of his heart. Everything happened so unexpectedly that he did not immediately realize that he, a living person, had been swallowed by a sperm whale and was in his womb. He was seized with a horror that he cannot compare with anything. From fear, he lost consciousness and remembers only the next moment: he lies in the captain's cabin of his whaler. This is all that sailor-whaler James Bargley could tell.

When the "Star of the East", having completed the voyage, returned to England, Bartley had to repeat his story to reporters again. English newspapers came out in special editions with the following headlines: “Sensation of the century! A man swallowed by a whale remains alive! One chance in a million. Incredible case of a man who stayed in the belly of a sperm whale for sixteen hours! About the well-being of the culprit of the sensational hype, the newspapers wrote: “Bartley is in a great mood and enjoys life like the most happy man on the ground".

Later this case was used by many tabloid authors. What did the hacks not tell their readers, distorting and distorting Bartley's story! The hero was compared with the biblical Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. They wrote that he soon became blind, then became a shoemaker in his hometown Gloucester, and even what's on it tombstone the inscription is carved: "James Bartley is a modern Jonah."

In fact, no one really knew anything about the fate of Bartley after the return of the Star of the East. It is only known that he was immediately taken to London for skin treatment. However, doctors, with their then imperfect methods of treating skin diseases, could not help Bartley. Frequent examinations, inquiries from doctors and journalists soon led to the fact that Bartley disappeared somewhere. There were rumors that he, not wanting to part with the sea, was hired to serve on a small ship.

But the hype raised in 1891 by newspapermen who tried with all their might to convince the reader of the veracity of the incident, a lot of distortions, details from the fourth mouth and, finally, the fact of the disappearance of the victim herself - all this led to the fact that at the end of the last century in the English Jonah already few believed. Over time, this story was forgotten.

For the first time detailed description The incident with the English whaler James Bartley was published in the book "Whaling, its dangers and benefits", published in a small edition in England at the end of the last century. The French professor M. de Parville wrote about this in no less detail in 1914 in the Parisian journal Journal de Deba. English mechanical engineer Sir Francis Fox gave a significant place to this case in his book "63 years of engineering", published in London in 1924.

In 1958, the now forgotten description of this incident was resurrected on its pages by the Canadian fishing magazine "Canedian Fisherman". In 1959, the same was reported on the pages of the magazine "Around the World" and in 1965 - in "Technology - Youth". In 1960-1961, the English monthly "Noticle Magazine" and the American magazines "Skipper" and "Sea Frontiers" again told readers about the "modern Ion." All the sources listed above consider this story plausible and quite probable.