Moby-Dick Skipper’s Ship Found

The real-life story of the skipper who inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick has just begun a new chapter: After his whaling vessel Essex—the ship that served as inspiration for the classic novel—was rammed by a sperm whale off Nantucket, Massachusetts, and sank to the bottom of the ocean, George Pollard Jr. and his crew took possession of another whaler, Two Brothers. That ship’s remnants have just been discovered on the bottom of the ocean nearly 600 miles northwest of Honolulu. Pollard and his crew survived the wreck and the skipper lived until he was 80 years old. Melville, who drew on a crew member’s accounts for his famous whale tale, met Pollard shortly after completing Moby-Dick.