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| In search of Moby-Dick | In search of Moby-Dick |
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| From a commodity hunted for its bone and blubber to a potent symbol of the environment, the whale has long held value. And the 150-year-old novel Moby-Dick is remarkably prescient about its fate, says writer Philip Hoare. | From a commodity hunted for its bone and blubber to a potent symbol of the environment, the whale has long held value. And the 150-year-old novel Moby-Dick is remarkably prescient about its fate, says writer Philip Hoare. |
| The whale is perhaps the most mysterious animal known to man. For centuries it inspired awe and fear, and was hunted for its oil, blubber and whalebone. Now it is a symbol of an ecological threat, a barometer for a world out of kilter. | The whale is perhaps the most mysterious animal known to man. For centuries it inspired awe and fear, and was hunted for its oil, blubber and whalebone. Now it is a symbol of an ecological threat, a barometer for a world out of kilter. |
| It is even more remarkable that the transition from an age of whale-hunting to an era of whale-watching has happened within living memory. | It is even more remarkable that the transition from an age of whale-hunting to an era of whale-watching has happened within living memory. |
| Ancient myth regarded the whale as an uncanny monster, a creature beyond comprehension. A whale might swallow a single human being, such as Jonah, or an entire city, as one Greek myth imagined. The poet William Blake wrote of a terrifying vision, "the head of Leviathan, his forehead was divided into streaks of green and purple like those on a tyger's forehead... advancing towards us with all the fury of a spiritual existence". FIND OUT MORE Arena: The Hunt for Moby-Dick is on BBC Two on 20 September at 2230 BSTAnd Whale Night is on BBC Four on 21 Sept at 1930 BSTOr catch up on the BBC iPlayer | Ancient myth regarded the whale as an uncanny monster, a creature beyond comprehension. A whale might swallow a single human being, such as Jonah, or an entire city, as one Greek myth imagined. The poet William Blake wrote of a terrifying vision, "the head of Leviathan, his forehead was divided into streaks of green and purple like those on a tyger's forehead... advancing towards us with all the fury of a spiritual existence". FIND OUT MORE Arena: The Hunt for Moby-Dick is on BBC Two on 20 September at 2230 BSTAnd Whale Night is on BBC Four on 21 Sept at 1930 BSTOr catch up on the BBC iPlayer |
| But ever since the early Basque fishermen travelled as far as the coast of North America to hunt whales, humans also saw these animals as a source of wealth. When the Pilgrim Fathers sailed into Provincetown harbour, Cape Cod, in 1620, they saw hundreds of whales "playing hard by us, of which in that place, if we had instruments and means to take them, we might have made a rich return". | But ever since the early Basque fishermen travelled as far as the coast of North America to hunt whales, humans also saw these animals as a source of wealth. When the Pilgrim Fathers sailed into Provincetown harbour, Cape Cod, in 1620, they saw hundreds of whales "playing hard by us, of which in that place, if we had instruments and means to take them, we might have made a rich return". |
| By the early 19th Century, Provincetown had become a profitable whaling port, with a fleet of 70 whale-ships. Ironically, it is now one of the world's great whale-watching spots. It was here that I saw my first whales in the wild. | By the early 19th Century, Provincetown had become a profitable whaling port, with a fleet of 70 whale-ships. Ironically, it is now one of the world's great whale-watching spots. It was here that I saw my first whales in the wild. |
| I've seen grown men cry when they see their first whale. Nothing prepares you for the sight of a 50 foot, 50 ton humpback whale leaping out of the water - in behaviour known as breaching. For a brief moment, it is as if the animal has freed itself from gravity, and seems to hang there in the air before plunging back into the ocean with an almighty splash. | I've seen grown men cry when they see their first whale. Nothing prepares you for the sight of a 50 foot, 50 ton humpback whale leaping out of the water - in behaviour known as breaching. For a brief moment, it is as if the animal has freed itself from gravity, and seems to hang there in the air before plunging back into the ocean with an almighty splash. |
| Philip Hoare watches humpbacks | |
| Returning year after year to Provincetown, I have since become a volunteer for the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, helping identify individual humpbacks from the unique patterns on their tails, or flukes. This data allows the naturalists to determine the sex, breeding and migration patterns of the animals. It's a kind of whale census. | Returning year after year to Provincetown, I have since become a volunteer for the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, helping identify individual humpbacks from the unique patterns on their tails, or flukes. This data allows the naturalists to determine the sex, breeding and migration patterns of the animals. It's a kind of whale census. |
| Quarry | Quarry |
| The United States may lead the way in the latest whale research, but it was also in the US that modern whaling began, on the island of Nantucket, as recorded by Herman Melville's famous novel. In Moby-Dick, the writer fantasises that the hunters of Nantucket slept with walruses and whales as their pillows. The island's Quaker captains assembled enormous fortunes from the whale.Japanese fishermen cut up whale meat | The United States may lead the way in the latest whale research, but it was also in the US that modern whaling began, on the island of Nantucket, as recorded by Herman Melville's famous novel. In Moby-Dick, the writer fantasises that the hunters of Nantucket slept with walruses and whales as their pillows. The island's Quaker captains assembled enormous fortunes from the whale.Japanese fishermen cut up whale meat |
| Melville himself served as a whaleman. The port of New Bedford from which he sailed in 1849 may be almost unknown today, but it was then was the richest city in America, rich on whale oil, a New England version of a Texan boom town. | Melville himself served as a whaleman. The port of New Bedford from which he sailed in 1849 may be almost unknown today, but it was then was the richest city in America, rich on whale oil, a New England version of a Texan boom town. |
| Meville's sprawling, idiosyncratic novel, published in 1851, was extraordinarily forward-looking. The book used the whaling industry as an allegory of imperial power. Melville configured the crazed Captain Ahab - who goes in pursuit of the eerie White Whale which scythed off his leg, determined to wreak his revenge - as a symbol of obsessive evil. | Meville's sprawling, idiosyncratic novel, published in 1851, was extraordinarily forward-looking. The book used the whaling industry as an allegory of imperial power. Melville configured the crazed Captain Ahab - who goes in pursuit of the eerie White Whale which scythed off his leg, determined to wreak his revenge - as a symbol of obsessive evil. |
| If you had any doubt about its prescience, just read the last page of the first chapter of Moby-Dick, in which the writer satirises his own narrator's self-importance in mock newspaper headlines: | If you had any doubt about its prescience, just read the last page of the first chapter of Moby-Dick, in which the writer satirises his own narrator's self-importance in mock newspaper headlines: |
Grand contested Election for the Presidency of the United StatesWHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAELBLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN
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| Indeed, modern political commentators have compared the war on terror and George W Bush's hunt for Osama Bin Laden to Ahab's impossible mission. | Indeed, modern political commentators have compared the war on terror and George W Bush's hunt for Osama Bin Laden to Ahab's impossible mission. |
| Only a few days after the 9/11 attacks, Edward Said wrote, "Collective passions are being funnelled into a drive for war that uncannily resembles Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby-Dick, rather than what is going on, an imperial power injured at home for the first time." | Only a few days after the 9/11 attacks, Edward Said wrote, "Collective passions are being funnelled into a drive for war that uncannily resembles Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby-Dick, rather than what is going on, an imperial power injured at home for the first time." |
| Such madness is seen as one which endangers the hunter more than it does his prey. After all, as anyone who had made it to the end of Melville's long and digressive novel knows, it is the whale that wins. | Such madness is seen as one which endangers the hunter more than it does his prey. After all, as anyone who had made it to the end of Melville's long and digressive novel knows, it is the whale that wins. |
| And 150 years ago, Melville addressed the immortality of the whale in a chapter entitled Does The Whale's Magnitude Diminish? Will He Perish? | And 150 years ago, Melville addressed the immortality of the whale in a chapter entitled Does The Whale's Magnitude Diminish? Will He Perish? |
| His conclusion was that it would not. "We account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in individuality. He swam the seas before the continents broke water; he once swam over the site of the Tuileries, and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. | His conclusion was that it would not. "We account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in individuality. He swam the seas before the continents broke water; he once swam over the site of the Tuileries, and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. |
| "In Noah's flood he despised Noah's ark; and if ever the world is to be flooded again, like the Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies." | "In Noah's flood he despised Noah's ark; and if ever the world is to be flooded again, like the Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies." |
| Melville seemed to envision our threatened world of rising temperatures and rising seas. But he also thought that the whale would survive the punitive cull of his age. | Melville seemed to envision our threatened world of rising temperatures and rising seas. But he also thought that the whale would survive the punitive cull of his age. |
| It is ironic that the hunting of whales actually reached its peak in the 20th Century. More whales died in 1951 - a century after the publication of Moby-Dick - than perished in 150 years of Yankee whaling. Yet with the institution of the worldwide ban on whaling, whales appear to have recovered. Blue whales now swim through the Irish Sea, and over the summer, humpbacks were taken off the list of endangered species. It seems Melville may have been proved right. | It is ironic that the hunting of whales actually reached its peak in the 20th Century. More whales died in 1951 - a century after the publication of Moby-Dick - than perished in 150 years of Yankee whaling. Yet with the institution of the worldwide ban on whaling, whales appear to have recovered. Blue whales now swim through the Irish Sea, and over the summer, humpbacks were taken off the list of endangered species. It seems Melville may have been proved right. |
| Close encounter | Close encounter |
| Melville was playing on ancient fears and myths of the whale. Philip's view of the whales | Melville was playing on ancient fears and myths of the whale. Philip's view of the whales |
| My own mission is to find the truth behind our relationship with the whale, and I came closer to the object of my pursuit than I had ever thought possible. | My own mission is to find the truth behind our relationship with the whale, and I came closer to the object of my pursuit than I had ever thought possible. |
| In waters three miles deep, I swam towards a school of sperm whales. I've never been so terrified in my life. I could feel my heart beating in my ribcage. | In waters three miles deep, I swam towards a school of sperm whales. I've never been so terrified in my life. I could feel my heart beating in my ribcage. |
| Suddenly, one of the whales began to swim towards me. A sperm whale's eyes are set low on the side of its head. I was sure it could not see me. And it was coming closer. Then I began to feel - rather than hear - its echo-locating sonar in my chest. It was akin to being in an MRI scanner. Just in time it turned, and for a moment, we came eye to eye. Then it dove, perpendicularly, into the profound blue-black, and was gone. | Suddenly, one of the whales began to swim towards me. A sperm whale's eyes are set low on the side of its head. I was sure it could not see me. And it was coming closer. Then I began to feel - rather than hear - its echo-locating sonar in my chest. It was akin to being in an MRI scanner. Just in time it turned, and for a moment, we came eye to eye. Then it dove, perpendicularly, into the profound blue-black, and was gone. |
| What I learned that day is the vexed shared history between human and whale has yet to run its course. Even now, these creatures remain deeply mysterious. We still have a lot to learn about each other. | What I learned that day is the vexed shared history between human and whale has yet to run its course. Even now, these creatures remain deeply mysterious. We still have a lot to learn about each other. |
| Add your comments on this story, using the form below. | Add your comments on this story, using the form below. |