In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale

Melville's classic Moby-Dick immortalized the idea of a mammoth sperm whale roaming the seas, wreaking havoc on all that crossed its path. But could such a creature exist, then or now? To find out, historian and adventurer Tim Severin travels to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Archipelago, where the twenty-one-year-old Melville deserted his whaling ship in 1842 and began to cobble together the legends, tall tales, sea lore and first-hand accounts from the local whalers. It is here that Severin begins to perceive the lush weave of fact and fiction, actual experience and extravagant yarn, which became Moby Dick.Timothy Severin is the author of 'In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale' with ISBN 9780783893624 and ISBN 0783893620.