9. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Moby-Dick was a real whale. In the nineteenth century sailors were in the habit of giving names to individual whales who were particularly dangerous or unkillable; among them were ‘Timor Jack’ and ‘New Zealand Tom’. One of the most famous was ‘Mocha Dick’, named after the island of Mocha off the Chilean coast. Mocha Dick was said to have drowned over 30 men, sunk five ships and been harpooned nineteen times, which probably accounted for his mood. Melville’s chief source was an article in the Knickerbocker Magazine of 1839 entitled ‘Mocha Dick: Or, the White Whale of the Pacific.’ He also took from the article the ship’s name the Penguin, changing it to the Pequod. Around the same time Melville was also writing a piece called ‘The Story of Toby’ about a seafaring friend: it may be that ‘Toby’ influenced the transformation from ‘Mocha Dick’ to ‘Moby-Dick’.

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