Comparing Whaling Now to the Occupation in the Nineteenth Century

Comparing Whaling Now to the

Occupation in the Nineteenth Century

The whaling industry has drastically changed technologically and politically from the time depicted in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick to the present. New harpoons, faster motor ships, and shore butchering stations have made whaling safer and quicker than Melville could have ever imagined. These changes are due largely to new technology and the increased value for whale products. The new methods of whaling have also caused a huge reduction in the size of the whale population. The decreased whale population has brought about new whaling laws that restrict whalers. These laws and a decreased need for whale oil have caused many whaling companies in the United States to close.

Moby Dick does not seem to be a fictional story. It seems like a true story of a captain and his crew (Browne 263). This is because Melville spent time as a whaler before he wrote the book. Herman Melville was born in New York in 1819. His father died when Melville was young which had a large impact on his life. His death caused Melville's family economic problems, which forced Melville to drop out of Albany Academy. He began working on whaling ships to help his impoverished family. This experience allowed him to write many of his novels such as Typee, Omoo, and Mardi.

Melville describes himself as having made more than one cruise as a South-

sea-whaler, and supposing this to have been the fact, he must nevertheless

have laboriously consulted all the books treating on the remotest degree on the

habits, natural history and mode of capturing this animal, which he could obtain,

for such an amazing mass of accurate and curious information on the subject of the

sperm-whale ("Trio").

He had even once stated that the whaling ship was his Yale and Harvard (Miller 879).