US marine archaeologists have found the sunken whaling ship belonging to the captain who inspired Herman Melville’s classic 19th Century novel, Moby Dick.

The remains of the vessel, the Two Brothers, was found in shallow waters off Hawaii.Captain George Pollard was the skipper when the ship hit a coral reef and sank in 1823.His previous ship, the Essex, had been rammed by a whale and also sank, providing the narrative for the book.
’Pretty amazing’ The remains of the Two Brothers were found by researchers from America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), about 600 miles (965 km) north-west of Honolulu in the remote chain of islands and atolls.The wooden vessel has disintegrated in the warm waters, but the researchers found harpoons, a hook for stripping whales of their blubber and cauldrons used to turn whale blubber into oil.

"To find the physical remains of something that seems to have been lost to time is pretty amazing," said Nathaniel Philbrick, an author and historian, who has been researching the Two Brothers, the Essex and their captain. "It just makes you realise these stories are more than stories. They’re about real lives."

The sinking of the Two Brothers was relatively uneventful compared with the Essex’s run-in with the sperm whale in 1821.After the Essex sank, Capt Pollard and his crew drifted at sea without food and water for three months and even resorted to cannibalism before they were rescued.Pollard gave up whaling and became a night watchman in Nantucket, Massachusetts.While Meville was inspired by Pollard’s adventures, the unlucky seafarer’s character is not thought to have been the basis for the novel’s obsessive Capt Ahab.

The original story can be found on www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12439656

Wow - I had no idea that they had found the "Moby Dick" boat. It's cool that they found the remains of the ship, but since it was a wooden ship and had mostly disintegrated, I wonder how they were able to identify it?

Can anyone dive around the historical wrecks that they find like this or is it limited? I have never seen a wreck while diving and would love the experience, does anyone have any tips or information on how I could go about doing that?

What a find! The team that found it must be thrilled! I would love to be an archaeological diver and have the opportunity to be involved in something like this.

What a find that must have been. I've always thought Moby Dick was pure fiction. I never have heard that it was based on a real captain and ship. Did the inspiration captain actually chase a whale around?

That's really cool. I wonder what other fictional ships are actually real and out there waiting to be discovered? It would be an amazing feeling to get your name in the history books by finding one.