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In Search of Moby Dick: Quest for the White Whale

tim severin

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Herman Melville's famous novel Moby Dick immortalised the idea of a battling white sperm whale roaming the ocean - but could such a beast exist?
Writer and explorer Tim Severin travels to the islands of the Pacific to find out.
From Nuku Hiva to the Philippines, from Tonga to Indonesia, Severin travels on a journey of discovery. Along the way he encounters the extraordinary hook-jumpers of Pamilacan, who make their living by leaping on the backs of ten-ton whale sharks. He observes a Tongan harpooner named Samson - now a priest in the Tongan church - re-enact the mystic ballet of a kill, transporting himself to his youth like a shaman from a forgotten age. And he accompanies the fishermen of Lamalera, who still hunt sperm whale by hand from their Stone Age boats. For them the white whale is no fiction but an ancestor which must be treated with respect. The leviathan is 'Leader of the Whales', intelligent and aggressive ... and real.

0 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,2002

This edition

Format
0 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 1999 by Little Brown Uk
ISBN
9780316645959
ASIN
0316645958
Language
English

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About the author

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tim severin

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Tim Severin was a British explorer, historian and writer. Severin is noted for his work in retracing the legendary journeys of historical figures. Severin was awarded both the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He received the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for his 1982 book The Sindbad Voyage.

He was born Timothy Severin in Assam, India in 1940. Severin attended Tonbridge School and studied geography and history at Keble College, Oxford.

Severin has also written historical fiction along with non fiction. The Viking Series, first published in 2005, concerns a young Viking adventurer who travels the world. In 2007 he published The Adventures of Hector Lynch series set in the late 17th century about a 17-year-old Corsair.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.4 / 5.0, 22 votes)
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22 reviews All reviews
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Shinji_Kenshin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I am about 1/3 way done with this one and I really have enjoyed it so far. I couldn't find the edition I have on this website but mine is dense with footnotes that take away from the original text. They explain things any native speaker of English would know or be able to figure out. But they do help with all those references Melville makes to the bible and mythology. As a poor old public school student I never had to read this book or any mythology. Oh well more for me to discover now!
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BingBongMcgoo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is an excellent read for anyone who ploughed through Moby Dick! In true Tim Severin style, he carried me through his quest for truth in myth and fiction and came up trumps in all ways. He has the ability to keep me engaged through everything he writes, keeps me in his vision, speaks to me in mind and heart.

I recommend his writing to anyone interested in adventure, particularly the sea-going sort. This landlubber was introduced to him through The Brendan Voyage, and I can heartily recommend that too.

Now I'm tempted to play with "...me hearty...!" That's the effect he had, taking me to sea with him. Curiously, ten minutes after finishing the book, I met a fellow-reader who would appreciate it, and I gave the book to him.
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M3Cyberpunk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Although I wish there had been more about Melville, Severin's experiences in the remote South Pacific form nice pieces of anthropology.
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M3Cyberpunk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Hm.. Just read 'Into the Heart of the Sea' by Nathaniel Philbrick. Probably suggest giving Moby Dick a miss too!
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new_raven
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Once again Tim Severin is on a mission to validate or destroy a legend. He journeys to Tongo to explore the culture and the connection to whale hunting. During his research, it is exposed how much Melville copied other authors' books. Severin also makes references to Melville's books, Typee and Omoo. I enjoy reading what he has discovered and how he has gone about it.
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Stevic1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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A great book if you love travel literature. Amazing description of whale hunting and also dispelling myth about Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Good read
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Woks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Essentially a variation on the most despised-by-me and vomitously pretentious literary genre, the literary pilgrimage.
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Mythicalx
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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They don't write books like this any more as adventurer/explorer Tim Severin sets out on a quest to find the elusive white whale made famous in Melville's classic 'Moby Dick.' Although the great white whale feature prominently in both the title and sub-title it is not the main focus of the book, the quest and the whale hunters of current times are. This book is a travelogue that takes the reader to a handful of South Pacific islands that still hunt whale with hand-held harpoons in rickety craft but it also contains anthropology and cultural observations that add to the reading experience and bring the various islanders to life. This is travel writing in it's purest form, where the world traveled to is the star - both it's people and their way of life - and not bogged down by some existential, self discovery. The writer approaches his subjects with a journalistic eye keeping his opinions to himself and letting the world around him tell the tale. This made the book much more enjoyable to me.

I had to knock off one star from the book though because this learned man makes a grade school mistake; he refers to whales constantly as fish when they are mammals. This ate at me a little, an Oxford educated man belonging to the Royal Geographic Society should know the difference and it made for some confusing reading. Also the quest remained unfilled. He never finds the White Whale although there are plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the claims of it's existence but much like Captain Ahab the writer is doomed to fail in his pursuits and the White whale wins once again.
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