Ishmael has decided we need a primer on the various images available of whales, before we return to the ongoing narrative. First, he gives us his scorching takes Of The Monstrous Pictures of Whales, and explains how science doesn’t know what it’s looking at, whalewise. Then he grudgingly admits to some accuracy, giving the nod Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales etc., before getting to chapter 57 and the whales he really thinks stand out from the crowd. Mark has been at the work of a painstaking burrower and grubworm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub, and found many of the images described in these chapters (you’ll find them below), and then Ben got to see them for the first time live on air! Also, it’s the one year anniversary of the first episode of HPWS going up, so we should all have a gam about it. Next time: We’re planning to read from chapters 58 to 63, covering a number of important topics like the diets of whales and various harpooneers’ instruments. Oh, and someone actually kills a whale.
Please enjoy the following collection of whale images! You can click on them for links to the sources.
“The Matse Avatar”, from Indian Antiquities, Thomas Maurice, 1806
Andromeda, Guido Reni, circa 1635-36
“Frontispiece” and “Perseus Descending” by William Hogarth, from Perseus & Andromeda, Lewis Theobald, first published 1730, this version from an 1808 printing
From Phalainologia Nova; Sine Observationes de Rarioribus quibiscum Balaenis in Scotiae Littus Nuper Ejectis, Robert Sibbald, 1692
Jonah Cast on Shore by the Fish, engraved by Antonius and Hieronymus Wierix, circa 1585, after Maerten de Vos
Title page of Erasmus’s Adagia, published by Aldus Manutius, 1508
Title page of Novum Organum Scientiarum, Francis Bacon, 1645, red circles my edits to highlight possible whales
“The Whale Fishery and Killing the Bears”, from Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or A Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels Consisting of Above Six Hundred Authentic Writers, John Harris, 1744-48
“Physeter, or Spermaceti Whale. Drawn by Scale, from one killed on the Coast of Mexico, August 1793. and hoisted in on Deck”, from A Voyage to the South Atlantic and Round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean for the Purpose of Extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries and Other Objects of Commerce, by Ascertaining the Ports, Bays, Harbours, and Anchoring Births, in Certain Islands and Coasts in Those Seas at Which the Ships of the British Merchants Might be Refitted. Undertaken and Performed by Captain James Colnett, of the Royal Navy, in the Ship Rattler, James Colnett, 1798
From Goldsmith’s Natural History: Abridged for the Use of Schools, 1826, abridged version of History of the Earth and Animated Nature, Oliver Goldsmith, 1774
Illustration of baleen whales (right whale at the top) from Histoire Naturelle des Cétacées, Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède, 1804
Illustration of sperm whales (erroneously depicted as two separate species) from Histoire Naturelle des Cétacées
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From De l'Histoire Naturelle des Cétacés, ou Recuil et Examen des Faits dont se Compose l’Histoire Naturelle ces Animaux, Georges-Frédéric Cuvier, 1836
South Sea Whale Fishery: A Representation of Boats attacking a Sperm Whale from Descriptions given by Experienced Masters and Officers in the South Sea Fishery, William John Huggins, 1834
Outline of a sperm whale, from A Few Observations on the Natural History of the Sperm Whale: with an Account of the Rise and Progress of the Fishery, and of the Modes of Pursuing, Killing, and "Cutting In" that Animal, with a List of its Favorite Places of Resort, Thomas Beale, 1835. We missed this one on the podcast, sorry!
“Picture of three whales in various attitudes”, from A Few Observations on the Natural History of the Sperm Whale
“Boats Attacking Whales”, frontispiece from The Natural History of the Sperm Whale. Its Anatomy and Physiology, Food, Spermaceti, Ambergris, Rise and Progress of the Fishery, Chase and Capture, "Cutting In" and "Trying Out", Description of the Ships, Boats, Men and Instruments Used in the Attack; with an Account of its Favourite Places of Resort. To which is Added a Sketch of a South-Sea Whaling Voyage; Embracing a Description of the Extent, as well as the Adventures and Accidents that Occurred During the Voyage in which the Author was Personally Engaged, Beale, 1839
From Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, with Notes of a Sojourn on the Island of Zanzibar. To which is Appended a Brief History of the Whale Fishery, John Ross Browne, 1846
From An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale Fishery, William Scoresby, Jr., 1820
“Dangers of the Whale Fishery”, frontispiece from Arctic Regions
Pêche du Cachalot, Cachalot Fishery, Friedrich von Martens, after Ambroise-Louis Garneray, 1835
Pêche de la Baleine, Whale-Fishery, von Martens, after Garneray, 1835
My phone photo of a woodcut illustration for Chapter 56, by Raymond Bishop, from Ben’s copy of the 2015 Dover edition
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From Arctic Regions
From Arctic Regions
Baleinier au Mouillage (“Whaler at Anchor”), Jean Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager, circa 1844-45
Balenier Français en Pêche (“French Whaler Fishing”), Durand-Brager, circa 1844-45
“Susan’s Tooth”, Frederick Myrick, 1829. You can just see the inscription along the bottom edge: “Death to the Living long life to the killers Success to sailors wives & greasy luck to whaler's”
Photo of Mystic Seaport Museum weathervane by Heather Wilkinson Rojo for Nutfield Genealogy, 2016
You can find more information about these chapters and these images in the very helpful book Herman Melville’s Picture-Gallery: Sources and Types of the “Pictorial” Chapters of Moby-Dick, by Stuart M. Frank. Many more Moby-Dick-relevant images can be seen in the online gallery exhibit Moby-Dick, A Whale of a Text on Loyola Marymount University’s Digital Commons.
