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Whaling shipwreck with link to Melville’s Moby-Dick discovered

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« on: February 13, 2011, 02:48:17 am »

Researchers find whaling ship from 1823 wreck
By Audrey McAvoy
Associated Press / February 11, 2011



HONOLULU—A fierce sperm whale sank the first whaling ship under George Pollard's command and inspired the classic American novel "Moby-Dick". A mere two years later, a second whaler captained by Pollard struck a coral reef during a night storm and sank in shallow water.

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Marine archaeologists scouring remote atolls 600 miles northwest of Honolulu have found the wreck site of Pollard's second vessel -- the Two Brothers -- which went down in 1823.

Most of the wooden Nantucket whaling ship disintegrated in Hawaii's warm waters in the nearly two centuries since. But researchers found several harpoons, a hook used to strip whales of their blubber, and try pots or large cauldrons whalers used to turn whale blubber into oil. Corals have grown around and on top of many of the objects, swallowing them into the reef.

"To find the physical remains of something that seems to have been lost to time is pretty amazing," said Nathaniel Philbrick, an author and historian who spent more than three years researching the Essex -- and its fatal encounter with the whale -- the Two Brothers and their captain. "It just makes you realize these stories are more than stories. They're about real lives."

Officials from the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument -- one of the world's largest marine reserves -- were due to announce their findings at a news conference Friday, exactly 188 years after the Two Brothers sank.

Kelly Gleason, the maritime archaeologist who led the discovery, first saw the ship's anchor in 2008 while surveying French Frigate Shoals.

The anchor could have belonged to any one of three 19th century whaling ships that sank at this atoll. But additional artifacts found by Gleason's team over the next two years -- like the cast iron cooking pots scattered around the wreck site -- were unmistakably from the 1820s, while the other two vessels sank in 1859 and 1867.

The sinking of the Two Brothers was relatively uneventful compared to the Essex's epic run-in with the whale. After the Essex capsized, Pollard and fellow crew members drifted at sea without food and water for three months before they were rescued. To survive, Pollard and others resorted to cannibalism, including eating one of the captain's cousins.

Still, Thomas Nickerson, a crew member who served under Pollard both on the Essex and the Two Brothers, later described his boss as being in a daze as they had to abandon ship for the second time.

"Capt. pollard (sic) reluctantly got into the boat just as they were about Shove off from the Ship," he wrote.

Fortunately, the Two Brothers was sailing with a fellow whaling ship, the Martha, which had taken shelter near a rock. When the sun rose, the 20 or so crew members of the Two Brothers rowed over to the Martha which picked them up. They all survived.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/11/researchers_find_whaling_ship_from_1823_wreck/
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« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2011, 02:51:40 am »

Pollard gave up whaling, though he was just in his mid-30s, and returned to Nantucket, Mass., where he became a night watchman -- a position of considerably lower status in the whaling town than captain.

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While the sperm whale attack inspired Melville to write "Moby-Dick," the author isn't believed to have used Pollard as the basis for the book's notorious Capt. Ahab.

Melville actually didn't meet Pollard until about a year after his novel was published, some three decades after Two Brothers sank. Philbrick said the meeting left a strong impression on the author, whose creation hadn't been an immediate critical or commercial success.

"He was a man who had the worst cards possible dealt to him but was continuing on with nobility and great dignity," Philbrick said. "He is the anti-Ahab. Ahab is enlisting the devil and whatever to fulfill his crackpot schemes. Pollard was someone who had seen the worst but was quietly going about his life with the utmost humility."

The Two Brothers wrecked in water only 10 to 15 feet deep, and would have likely been stripped clean had it wrecked closer to a populated area. But the isolation of French Frigate Shoals means the site has been untouched.

"We had the opportunity to find something that's probably as close to being a time capsule as we could get," Gleason said.

The Two Brothers was like other New England whaling ships of the time, in that its crew sailed thousands of miles from home hunting whales to harvest their blubber. They boiled the fat of the massive marine mammals into oil used to light lamps in cities from New York to London and to power early industry.

The appetite for whale blubber oil, however, meant the ships quickly exhausted successive whale grounds. The Essex was far off the coast of South America when the sperm whale rammed into it. The Two Brothers was passing through poorly mapped waters northwest of the main Hawaiian islands on the way to recently discovered whale grounds closer to Japan when it hit the reef.

"It was kind of like this ship trap of atolls," Gleason said. "It went from about 40 feet to all of the sudden they were in about 10 feet of water."

For Hawaii, the discovery is a reminder of the great upheaval the whaling industry brought to a kingdom still adjusting to life after the first European travelers arrived.

The hundreds of whaling ships that called on Hawaii's ports starting in 1819 boosted the kingdom's economy, but this mostly benefitted a few men who became suppliers to the vessels, said Jonathan Osorio, a professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The arrival of thousands of outsiders -- some of whom claimed Hawaiian law had no jurisdiction over them because they were American or European -- challenged the young monarchy.

Gleason said the artifacts are due to go on display at the marine monument's Discovery Center in Hilo and she hopes the exhibit will travel to Nantucket. The archeologists also have more surveying to do: there's still no accounting for another five whaling ships that sank in the atolls that now make up the Papahanaumokuakea monument.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2011, 02:53:20 am »

Rare 1823 Wreck Found—Capt. Linked to "Moby-Dick," Cannibalism
Lightning struck ill-fated skipper twice.




Believed to be from the Nantucket whaling ship Two Brothers, a 19th-century anchor lies off remote Hawaiian islands in 2008. (See more pictures)

Photograph courtesy Tane Casserley, NOAA

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published February 11, 2011

Linked to Moby-Dick and skippered by a man who (reluctantly) ate his own cousin, the whaling ship Two Brothers has been lost on a remote Pacific reef since 1823.

Now experts say they've found hard evidence of the ship 600 miles (970 kilometers) from Honolulu (map). If confirmed, the discovery would be the first of a wrecked whaler from Nantucket (map), Massachusetts—the birthplace of the U.S. whaling industry.

(See photographs of the wreck and its blubber pots.)

The shipwreck was found at French Frigate Shoals in the remote Papahnaumokuakea Marine National Monument, archaeologists announced Friday.

At its peak, from the 1820s to the 1840s, Nantucket was home to several dozen whaling ships. Whaling crews hunted whales species for their blubber, which was boiled down into oils that were used in everything from lamps to perfume to machine lubricants.

Whale oil "was the day's equivalent of our oil trade. ... The resource was so valuable that it drove man to hunt species to extinction," explained Kelly Gleason, a maritime archaeologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and maritime heritage coordinator at Papahanaumokuakea.

(Related: "Whale Hunting to Continue in Antarctic Sanctuary.")

Whaling Captain a "Most Impressive Man"

Two Brothers was captained by George Pollard, Jr. The Nantucket native had the dubious distinction of commanding two whaling ships and losing both.

Pollard's first ship, the Essex, sank in 1820 after being rammed by a sperm whale—an incident that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Adrift at sea in small whaleboats for more than three months, the starving crew of the Essex resorted to cannibalism. Before being rescued by another ship, Pollard helped execute and eat his 18-year-old cousin, who had drawn a bad lot.

Despite the Essex tragedy, Pollard was offered another captaincy soon after, this time of the Two Brothers.

In the early 19th century, whaling voyages often took two years or more. The Two Brothers set sail from Nantucket in November 1821. By winter 1822, the ship had rounded the tip of South America. The crew was on its way to newly discovered whaling grounds near Japan when tragedy struck in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Before departing, Pollard had said he believed "lightning never strikes in the same place twice," according to Gleason. Yet on the night of February 11, 1823, the Two Brothers hit a shallow reef and quickly broke apart in the heavy surf.

The ship's crew was rescued, but Pollard's career as a whaling captain was over.

In Nantucket, he was known as a Jonah, a man who brings misfortune on a ship. Pollard was relegated to a career as a night watchman, one of the least respected social positions on the island.

According to the Nantucket Historical Association, Melville met Pollard many years later, and wrote of him: "To the islanders he was a nobody—to me, the most impressive man, tho' wholly unassuming, even humble—that I ever encountered."

(Related: "'Ghost Ship' Pictures: Gold Rush-Era Wreck Found.")

The Telltale Harpoon?

The Two Brothers remained lost until 2008, when maritime archaeologists participating in a NOAA expedition in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands discovered a large early 19th-century anchor in the shallow waters of French Frigate Shoals.

The team suspected from the beginning that the wreckage belonged to the Two Brothers, but they lacked strong evidence until 2009, when more artifacts, including the tip of a whaling harpoon, were discovered.

"A whaling harpoon is an exciting artifact to discover at a shipwreck site," said Gleason, who is leading the Two Brothers archaeological survey.

"The technology of the whaling harpoon changed a great deal over the course of the 19th century, so you can match a whaling harpoon to a specific time period and place of origin."

Also, "blacksmiths would have also etched the name of a ship on the harpoon, because if a harpooned whale got away, they wanted to make sure whoever caught it next knew that the whale was already claimed."

The artifacts are currently undergoing treatment, and it will be several more months before it's known whether the Two Brothers initials are indeed etched on the harpoon tip, which is heavily encrusted.

In the meantime, Gleason and her team say they're confident that the wreckage was the Two Brothers.

"There were three whaling ships lost at French Frigate Shoals: The Two Brothers, lost in 1823; the South Seaman, lost in 1859; and the Daniel Wood, lost in 1867," Gleason explained.

"The South Seaman and Daniel Wood were lost much later, and vessels of their post Civil War era would have had heavy machinery on board. The shipwreck at French Frigate Shoals is clearly a vessel out of Nantucket in the 1820s, based on the dates and provenience of dozens of artifacts."

Hard Evidence of Whaler's Floating Factory

Among the recovered artifacts are broken pieces of ceramic plates that may have belonged to Captain Pollard himself.

"The ceramics discovered at the Two Brothers site reflect the type of dishware you would find at the captain's table. These are not the plates of the crew," Gleason said.

Other artifacts include try-pots—big iron cauldrons used to boil down whale blubber into oil—iron cooking pots, and a small grinding wheel, probably for sharpening tools.

"People often think that shipwrecks are only glamorous if you find gold or silver, but in this case, it's truly a working ship," Gleason said. "All the artifacts that we're finding reflect that this was a floating factory."

(Related: See pictures of ancient treasure from a U.K. shipwreck.)

Very little wood from the ship has been recovered, but this isn't surprising, as the region's warm waters, rough waves, and marine animals would have quickly deteriorated the wood, Gleason added.

More Two Brothers Artifacts Await on Seafloor

The recovered artifacts are currently being restored and will eventually be displayed at Papahanaumokuakea's Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo, Hawaii.

In the meantime, Gleason said, the team plans to continue surveying and documenting the shipwreck site.

"Every time we return to Papahanaumokuakea, we discover something new," she said. "There are a lot of artifacts associated with this shipwreck that we haven't found yet."

Ben Simons, chief curator of the Nantucket Historical Association, said he's very excited by the discovery of the Two Brother's remains.

"A lot of whaling history is sort of slumbering in the history books and scattered in museums," Simons said. "But this [finding] allows the history to come alive for a modern age."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110211-two-brothers-whaling-ship-pollard-science-nantucket-noaa/
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« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2011, 11:56:56 pm »

Whaling shipwreck with link to Melville’s Moby-Dick discovered


Dr. Kelly Gleason examines a ginger jar at the Two Brothers shipwreck site. Credit: NOAA/Greg McFall
Whaling shipwreck with link to Melville’s Moby-Dick discovered
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Sunday, February 13, 2011  |  Featured, News

Maritime heritage archaeologists working with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have found the wreckage of a famous 1800’s Nantucket whale ship, Two Brothers, on a reef off French Frigate Shoals, nearly six hundred miles north-west of Honolulu, in the remote Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

Two Brothers was captained by George Pollard Jr., whose previous Nantucket whaling vessel, Essex, was rammed and sunk by a whale in the South Pacific, inspiring Herman Melville’s famous book, Moby-Dick. Pollard gained national notoriety after the Essex sinking, when he and a handful of his crew resorted to cannibalism in order to survive their prolonged ordeal drifting on the open ocean.

    Pollard gained national notoriety after the Essex sinking, when he and a handful of his crew resorted to cannibalism in order to survive their prolonged ordeal

Captain Pollard went to sea again as the master of Two Brothers and on the night of February 11, 1823, the ship hit a shallow reef off French Frigate Shoals. Pollard did not want to abandon ship but his crew pleaded with him and they clung to small boats for survival during a long and harrowing night. The next morning they were rescued by the crew of another Nantucket whaler.

For the past 188 years, the wreckage of Two Brothers has been lost on the ocean floor. The vessel was part of a fleet of several hundred whaling ships that were part of America’s economic and political expansion into the Pacific, transforming the region, including Hawaii, both economically and culturally, and resulting in the near extinction of many whale species. The whaling fleets were also largely responsible for early exploration of the Indian Ocean and the Polar Regions.
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« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2011, 11:58:02 pm »



Dr. Kelly Gleeson with a try-pot for melting whale blubber. Credit: NOAA/Greg McFall

Dr. Kelly Gleason with a try-pot for melting whale blubber. Credit: NOAA/Greg McFall

In 2008, Maritime archaeologists first spotted a large anchor, followed by three try-pots (cast iron pots for melting whale blubber to produce oil), another large anchor, hundreds of bricks and the remains of the ship’s rigging. Those artefacts conclusively indicated the wreckage was from a whaler dating to the early 19th century.

Subsequent expeditions in 2009 and 2010 resulted in researchers discovering more artefacts including blubber hooks, five whaling harpoon tips, three whaling lances, four cast-iron cooking pots and ceramics and glass indicating a United States origin. This helped confirm the dating of the wreckage. Additional scholarly research provided first-hand accounts from Two Brothers crew members, including an approximate location of where the ship grounded, which matched the location of the wreckage.

“Shipwreck sites like this are important in helping tell the stories of the early days of sailing, including whaling and maritime activities both in the Pacific and around the world,” said Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument maritime archaeologist Dr. Kelly Gleason, who led the on-site expeditions.

“Discoveries like the Two Brothers serve an important role in connecting geographically separated regions and communities (New England and the Pacific), the past to the present, and provide context and a better understanding of human decisions that have altered the planet,” said James Delgado, director, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ Maritime Heritage Program.

http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/02/2011/whaling-shipwreck-with-link-to-melvilles-moby-dick-discovered
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