The Island of Mocha in the South Pacific
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
As a child, I had two great interests, dinosaurs and whales. I knew everything about them before it became Jurassic Park en vogue and about wore my books out reading about them, such was my obsession.
I have always had a fear of Sperm Whales, as they are really like no other whale, in they have teeth, while the others have baleen to skim plankton from the ocean.
The Sperm Whale was the whale thee American whaling ships hunted, for the oil for lamps, as the blubber was rendered into oil, and for the oil sac in the head, spermaceti, along with the amounts of fragrance which ended up in perfume or trapping lures which occurred in growths of the head.
Mocha Island - Wikipedia
Mocha (Spanish: Isla Mocha) is a small Chilean island located west of the coast of Arauco Province in the Pacific Ocean. The island is approximately 48 km 2 (19 sq mi) in area, with a small chain of mountains running roughly in north-south direction.
The most famous of Sperm Whales was Moby Dick, and it was fascinating as this was an actual whale whose real name was Mocha Dick. Whalers named particular whales who were vicious and cunning, and Mocha Dick was that type of whale from the island of Mocha region. Each whale of renown was named for the region and a surname, that is where Dick arose from.
Was it not so, O Timor Jack! thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long did'st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name, whose spout was oft seen from the palmy beach of Ombay? Was it not so, O New Zealand Tom! thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the vicinity of the Tattoo Land? Was it not so, O Morquan! King of Japan, whose lofty jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snow-white cross against the sky? Was it not so, O Don Miguel! thou Chilian whale, marked like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back!
The first account actually published of Mocha Dick in an article in the Knickerbocker magazine in 1839 by Jeremiah Reynolds. Everyone had forgotten about it, when Herman Melville published his epic work which became legend. The reasoning in the name of Moby has never been explained, even by the author.
It was conjectured that Melville upon reading the account of Mocha Dick, and beginning his writing career, he met again a fellow deserter from the ship, Marquesas, Richard Tobias Greene, and began The Story of Toby, as in Tobias, the sequel to the work Typee. The reasoning was that Mocha Dick, became Toby Dick, and was melded into Moby Dick. No one knows in the Charles Dickens type word play, but the fact is Mocha Dick would not have grabbed attention, nor would Toby Dick, but Moby Dick flows perfectly, like another Melville title in Billy Budd.
Each whale was different in their appearance from the barnacles, to the markings. Moby Dick was known by his actions and by his whitish coloring, to his blow hole. It really was a remarkable human interaction in hunting creatures this large who would retaliate in violence, especially in the bulls.
There as a romance to it, although it was more cruel in harpooning a whale and it taking a boat for a sled ride for hours, compared to the Japanese methods of explosive charges which blast the life out of a whale in seconds and winches haul them onto process ships to be rendered into by products in a short time.
This great obsession with killing the demon animal has shown up time and again in literature and film. One of my favorites is Star Trek in the original series is where Captain Kirk in Obsession, hunts a creature which attacked a starship when he was first shipped into space. There is a beautiful classic line by Kirk in this, who says, "The scent of the creature is different. I think I know where it is going. It is going home to where it battled a starship before".
Unfortunately Star Trek did not name the creature, and even more so, Herman Melville never divulged the reasoning and process of where the name Moby Dick actually appeared. Perhaps some mystery adds to the fictional story of a real life whale, named Mocha Dick, who all would have forgotten in the modern age, if not for Herman Melville and his epic tale and characters.
Herman Melville
Nuff Said
agtG
