Melville based his novel "Moby Dick" partly on an actual incident. Recently saw a documentary on this very topic on the History Channel. Here's a Wiki link to the strange, tragic, and true story of the Nantucket whaling ship "Essex," sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean off South America in 1820. Fascinating story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
Two other whaling ships were sunk by being rammed by sperm whales. The Ann Alexander in 1852 I think - Melville said that whale was quite the commentator on his novel, and the Kathleen in 1903 I believe.
Many other ships were sunk by collisions with whales. In some cases, it was clearly an accident in which the ship ran into a whale resting on the surface, often at night, and in a few cases the whales rammed the ships, and in other cases it is uncertain what happened.
When the British ship Waterloo was sunk during the Crimean War the newspapers illustration showed the whale ramming it, and an article suggested it was a Russian whale on a priviteering cruse, but I don't know if the whale did ram that ship.
Anyway, sailing ships often sank within minutes after collisions with whales.
Around 1800 a ship Harmony was sunk by a whale, poetic justice if it was the Harmony which helped pioneer the Pacific as a whaling area. I am not sure if the harmony was rammed by an angry whale, or ran into a resting whale, or if a whale jumped out of the ocean and happened to land on the deck of the Harmony.
this source: http://books.google.com/books?id=lgsWDUXvU2QC&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=ship+Harmony+1796+whale&source=bl&ots=P0HQazyt35&sig=as1m9znnJdIWSm3z-aBptxMeMns&hl=en&ei=V1y8TvzUJObi0QGjh5TKBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ship%20Harmony%201796%20whale&f=false says the harmony was sunk in 1796 by a sperm whale which leaped over its deck.
This source implies the harmony collided with a whale http://books.google.com/books?id=jkBJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=ship+Harmony+1796+whale&source=bl&ots=mJ66eCYzKP&sig=nFqpJ45VuF5U_SqVVjyz3oCnyMg&hl=en&ei=V1y8TvzUJObi0QGjh5TKBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=ship%20Harmony%201796%20whale&f=false
Nineteenth Century wooden sailing ships were a lot stronger than the fragile watercraft which Humans had used for thousands of years to discover and colonize islands and continents. If whales had constantly been hostile to boats and rafts and ships for all of history, no islands or continent (except for Africa and Eurasia) would ever have been settled by Humans and none of us would ever have been born.
Moby Dick was partially based on Mocha Dick, a large white or whitish or partly white bull sperm whale who fought many battles with whalers in the early nineteenth Century.
I take it sperm whales did NOT like humans invading their territorial waters. lol
No.they didn't mind that at all.
Remember that the whaling technique in those days was to row up to sperm whales on the surface - which couldn't be done if the whales were afraid of boats or hostile to boats - and then stab them with harpoons attached to long, long lines which the whalers hoped to reel in the whales once they exhausted themselves. The whole plan depended on the whales being indifferent to ships and whale boats until they were harpooned.
No, it was being stabbed that the whales did not like.
the point I was making is that for thousands of years many m humans earned their living from the sea in boats and crossed oceans in boats which were much more fragile that the 19th Century ships which whales sometimes sank. Those boats were even more at the mercy of the whales they often passed near than 19th century ships were.
If whales had been hostile to ships and boats for those thousands of years countless thousands and millions of Humans would have been killed. No islands or isolated continents would ever have been settled, and none of us would ever have been born due to some of our ancestors not living long enough to have children.
Thus we all ow owe a vast debt of gratitude to whales for not being hostile to seafarers during all the thousands of years that every boat was at the mercy of the first whale it met.
Se also "Moby Dick, Hero of the Seas".
magolding:
If whales had constantly been hostile to boats and rafts and ships for all of history, no islands or continent (except for Africa and Eurasia) would ever have been settled by Humans and none of us would ever have been born.
Today's ships seem to be getting their revenge on whales. A number of blue whales have washed ashore in recent years. The thinking seems to be they were rammed by giant container ships traveling between China and the U.S. west coast.
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