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1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

THE HUNT FOR THE REAL MOBY DICK (remastered)

1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

Jon Hagadorn

Society & Culture, History

4.41.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2015

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"The Hunt For the Real Moby Dick" -In 1839 journalist Jeremiah Reynolds, writing for the New York Knickerbocker Magazine, caught up with the whaling ship "Penguin" off the coast of Chili, and interviewed the first mate, getting the eyewitness account of the hunt for and capture of the whale known as 'Mocha Dick", a 90 foot white whale that had been responsible for attacking and sinking the whaling ship "Essex" , the story of which has been recently released as a Ron Howard movie. Reynolds spends the first 16 minutes of this story introducing us to the island of Mocha, off the coast of Chili, in prime whaling waters, as well as the captain and first mate of the whaling ship Penguin. The First Mate, having recently gained notoriety as the man responsible for finally catching the killer white whale, picks up the story around 16:00, and thats where the action begins- so hang on to your seat for this eyewitness account. Whales are thankfully protected today and are no longer needed to keep the lights in the cities of Paris and New York burning, or the mills and factories running. But in the 1800's many a young lad was drawn to the ports of Gloucester and New London for a chance at adventure. Many never returned. WARNING: THIS AUDIO DEPICTS THE KILLING OF A WHALE. NOT FOR THE FEINT HEARTED OR VERY YOUNG. May 2018 Update Check out our new 1001 Book at Amazon! the first of many, we hope. its a collection of 10 of our most popular short stories. Please leave us a review when you go Thanks!https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Short-Stories-Fireside-Collection-ebook/dp/B07CRW2RZ9/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1525854517&sr=8-4&keywords=kindle+books+1001+classic+short+stories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

And Oh, it all the way.

0:13.0

Oh, well. Oh, Way, Hallaway! The Good Ship now is Roan

0:27.8

Coming. We Hallaway will Hall Halloween Joe.

0:35.0

King Louis was the King of France

0:39.0

before the revolution.

0:42.0

We'll hallway. the our history series titled Mokka Dick the Killer White Whale that inspired Melville to

0:55.6

write Moby Dick. I'm your host John Haggadorn and this is our story. His name

1:01.4

sounds like a Starbucks creation but he was anything but a

1:04.6

worm and friendly cup of coffee. He was an enormous bull whale that turned on a

1:09.1

235 ton ship and reduced it to splinters in minutes while the terrified crew

1:14.5

watched from their small wooden boats. Later the crew of 20 would turn to

1:18.1

cannibalism to survive. This was the whale that became Herman Melville's

1:22.4

inspiration for Moby Dick.

1:24.3

From 1712 to 1870, the whaling industry in New England

1:28.2

supplied the modern world with oil.

1:30.1

In Paris, London, and New York, streetlights burned every night using whale oil.

1:35.0

The mechanized world ran on it.

1:37.0

Mills operated using whale oil, and the lights that kept them open at night were there,

1:42.0

thanks to the precious fluid.

1:44.5

Young men showed up in droves in wailing towns like Nantucket and New Bedford for a chance to go

1:49.4

to sea because they sought the adventure, the, and the pay, meager as it was.

1:54.0

It was dangerous work, and many never returned.

...

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