In search of moby dick, p.24
In Search of Moby Dick, page 24
In the Philippines Lory Tan and Juni Binamura were my expert mentors. They steered me in the right direction to find and appreciate the island of Pamilacan and its ‘hook jumpers’.
In Tonga Allan and Lynn Bowe, ably assisted by Nosa Luis, demonstrated how entertaining and hard-working hosts can improve even an island paradise.
I hope that by describing my search of Moby Dick I have been able to share with these friends and supporters my enjoyment of tracking down the white whale.
A Note About the Author
Acclaimed adventure writer and explorer Tim Severin has made a career of retracing the storied journeys of mythical and historical figures in replica vessels. These experiences have been turned into a body of captivating and illuminating books, including The Brendan Voyage and In Search of Genghis Khan. When not travelling, he lives in County Cork, Ireland.
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[1] Oddly enough, the revulsion did no harm to the careers of the survivors. The three men left on Henderson Island were picked up by a ship specially sent to collect them and – remarkably – all eight survivors not only went back to whaling, but all of them became captains of whaleships.
[2] The chief at Taiohae particularly liked a horse the French had brought with them, and an officer exercised on the beach. The chief had never seen a horse before, and asked if he might try a ride. He charged along with such gusto that the French were considerably impressed. It was the start of a trend: modern Marquesans are excellent horsemen, often riding bareback.
[3] On board was a midshipman, Thomas Melville, Herman’s cousin.
[4] There was another survivor from the same wreck, an Englishman called Robarts or Roberts, who made a living as ship’s pilot guiding foreign vessels into Taiohae Bay. He and Cabri did not get on, competing for the favour of the native chiefs, and there is a suspicion that Robarts was an accomplice in arranging Cabri’s forced removal from the island.
[5] Named after a Norwegian whalemaster and properly pronounced ‘breuda’ but almost always pronounced ‘bride’s whale’.
[6] It also provided the artist J. M. W. Turner with the images for three whaling paintings.
[7] A tabua still appears as a symbol on the Fijian twenty-cent coin. To ethnographers, Fiji has a blend of Melanesian and Polynesian cultures.
[8] He subsequently became an unsuccessful London stockbroker.
[9] In the late 1820s the bêche-de-mer merchants, many of them Yankees, travelled from island to island buying dried sea slugs which they later sold for an immense profit to the Chinese market. They paid the islanders with whales’ teeth which they bought from whaling captains, or palmed off walrus teeth or replicas carved from elephant ivory as the genuine, oversize article.
[10] Later appointed Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University, he published his findings under the title Sea Hunters of Lamalera. He was accompanied on visits to Lamalera by his wife and children, and Ruth Barnes became the acknowledged authority on Lamalera’s textiles.
Tim Severin, In Search of Moby Dick
