Mocha Dick
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Mocha Dick (; died 1838) was a rogue
albino Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of ...
(or possibly leucistic) male
sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...
('' Physeter macrocephalus'') that lived in the southeastern
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
in the early
19th century The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was Abolitionism, ...
, usually encountered in the waters near Mocha Island, off the central coast of
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
. American
explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
and
author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
J. N. Reynolds published an account of the whale in ''Mocha Dick, Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal'', printed in '' The Knickerbocker'' in 1839. Mocha Dick was, apparently, part of the inspiration behind
Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...
's novel, ''
Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
'' (1851).


History

Mocha Dick survived many skirmishes (by Reynolds' account at least 100) with whalers before he was eventually killed. He was large and powerful, capable of wrecking small craft with his fluke. Explorer J.N. Reynolds gathered first-hand observations of Mocha Dick and published his account "Mocha Dick: Or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal", in the May 1839 issue of ''The Knickerbocker''. Reynolds described Mocha Dick as "an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength... ''white as wool''.J. N. Reynolds.
Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal
" ''The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine''. Vol. 13, No. 5, May 1839, pp. 377–392.
According to Reynolds, Mocha Dick's head was covered with
barnacle Barnacles are arthropods of the subclass (taxonomy), subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacean, Crustacea. They are related to crabs and lobsters, with similar Nauplius (larva), nauplius larvae. Barnacles are exclusively marine invertebra ...
s, which gave him a rugged appearance. The whale also had a peculiar method of spouting: Mocha Dick was most likely first encountered and attacked sometime before 1810 off Mocha Island. His survival of the first encounters coupled with his unusual appearance quickly made him famous among
Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...
whalers. Many captains attempted to hunt him after rounding
Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...
. Mocha Dick was quite docile, sometimes swimming alongside the ship, but once attacked he retaliated with ferocity and cunning, and was widely feared by harpooners. When agitated he would sound and then breach so aggressively that his entire body would sometimes come completely out of the water.Whipple, A. B. C. ''Yankee Whalers in the South Seas''. Doubleday, 1954. In Reynolds' account, Mocha Dick was killed in 1838, after he appeared to come to the aid of a distraught cow whose calf had just been slain by the whalers. His body was 70 feet long and yielded 100 barrels of oil, along with some ambergris—a substance used in the making of perfumes and at times worth more per ounce than gold. He also had 20 harpoons in his body. A decade later, ''The Knickerbocker'' reported another sighting of Mocha Dick in the Arctic Ocean, concluding, "Vive Mocha Dick!"


Legacy

Mocha Dick was not, apparently, the only white whale in the sea. A Swedish whaler claimed to have taken a very old white whale off the coast of Brazil in 1859. In 1902, the New Bedford whaling
barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...
''Platina'', captained by Thomas McKenzie, harpooned and killed an albino sperm whale near the
Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...
in the Atlantic Ocean, using a harpoon tipped with an explosive device. Amos Smalley harpooned the white whale and recounted his experience to ''Reader's Digest''. He remembers Captain McKenzie estimating by the wear on the whale's teeth that it was "at least a hundred years old, maybe two hundred". Smalley was a guest at the premiere of
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...
's film ''
Moby Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
'', 1956, where he was introduced as "the man who killed Moby Dick". In 1952, ''Time'' magazine reported the harpooning of a white whale off the coast of Peru. Since 1991, there have been sightings reported of a white humpback whale near Australia, nicknamed Migaloo. In 2012, a white humpback, nicknamed Willow the White Whale, was filmed off the coast of Norway. Sightings of white sperm whales have also been recorded off Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea in 2006 and 2015. More recently, a white sperm whale was filmed in Caribbean waters offshore from Jamaica in 2021, by crew of a Dutch merchant ship. Noted explorer
Tim Severin Timothy Severin (25 September 1940 – 18 December 2020) was a British explorer, historian, and writer. Severin was noted for his work in retracing the legendary journeys of historical figures. Severin was awarded both the Founder's Medal ...
wrote (in his 1999 book ''In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whal''e) of traveling about the Pacific, inquiring among indigenous fishermen and watermen about white whales, in personal experience or local folklore. In 2010, Williams College Museum of Art presented a whale-sized work titled "Mocha Dick" — a , ghostly white sperm whale sculptured from industrial felt, created by artist Tristin Lowe. The art show was sponsored by the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program, an interdisciplinary ocean and coastal studies program created by Williams College and the Mystic Seaport maritime museum. In an interview with ''The Berkshire Eagle'', Lowe said, "This is the archetypical whale... It's so symbolic: 'Moby Dick,' the white whale, and to have it all based on a real whale 'as white as wool,' it was all too perfect. There's a majestic quality to the whale, a calling, almost like the sea/ocean itself."


See also

* List of individual cetaceans


References


Further reading

* Almy, Robert F. "J. N. Reynolds: A Brief Biography with Particular Reference to Poe and Symmes." ''The Colophon'', 2 (1937): 227–245 * Heinz, Brian. Mocha Dick: The Legend and Fury. Creative Editions, Illustrated Edition, 2014. * Howe, Henry.
The Romantic History of Jeremiah N. Reynolds
" ''Historical Collections of Ohio'', vol 2. Cincinnati, 1889. * Severin, Timothy. In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale. Basic Books Inc., 1999. * Shapiro, Irwin. How Old Stormalong Captured Mocha Dick. Julian Messier, 1942.


External links

*Escher, Kat.
The Real-Life Whale That Gave Moby Dick His Name
” ''Smithsonian Magazine'' (October 2017). *Last, David, et al.
Collisions Between Ships and Whales
, ''Marine Mammal Science'', 17(1):35–75 (January 2001) *Rogers, Ben.
From Mocha Dick to Moby Dick: Fishing for Clues to Moby's Name and Color
, ''Names: A Journal of Onamastics''. Vol. 46, No. 4, Dec. 1988, pp. 263–276. *Tierney, Erik.
Moby Dick - Mocha Dick
, ''All About Stuff''. {{Moby-Dick 18th-century animal births 1838 animal deaths Individual albino animals Moby-Dick American folklore Maritime folklore Individual sperm whales Chilean legends Whaling in Chile Individual wild animals