# Did Melville indicate how big Moby Dick was? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301 "2015-01-19T18:36:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/1 "2015-01-19T18:36:07Z")
Sorry, didn’t read it. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/2 "2015-01-19T18:46:13Z")
I read it, but it has been a while. I don’t know if Melville mentioned the length. The whale in question was a sperm whale, though so 50 to 60 feet long seems like the range for adult males. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/3 "2015-01-19T18:51:44Z")
[I don’t think so, but there is an article that says in his margins, he exaggerated the sizes of actual whales and then added a few feet to his own, making it outrageously large.](http://melvillesmarginalia.org/introductions.php?id=52) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/4 "2015-01-19T18:56:32Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [I don’t think so, but there is an article that says in his margins, he exaggerated the sizes of actual whales and then added a few feet to his own, making it outrageously large.](http://melvillesmarginalia.org/introductions.php?id=52) Maybe it was just that white makes you look larger. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/5 "2015-01-19T18:58:00Z")
Moby was based on Mocha Dick, who was 70’ long. > **[Mocha Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocha_Dick)** > > Mocha Dick (/ˈmɒtʃə dɪk/; died 1838) was a male sperm whale that lived in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century, usually encountered in the waters near Mocha Island, off the central coast of Chile. American explorer and author Jeremiah N. Reynolds published his account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" in 1839 in The Knickerbocker. Mocha Dick was an albino and partially inspired Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. > Mocha Dick survived ma... A very large Sperm whale is 85’, such as the one that sank the whaler\* Essex\*. Moby’s exact dimensions are never given, but the book claims that the largest sperm whales can reach a length of ninety feet (larger than any officially recorded sperm whale) and that Moby Dick is likely the largest sperm whale that ever lived. So, thus= 90’+. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/6 "2015-01-19T19:13:34Z")
I’m sure there’s a joke in here somewhere, I just can’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/7 "2015-01-19T19:15:58Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I’m sure there’s a joke in here somewhere, I just can’t see it. You do know that Sperm whales are sorta black, right? “Only Melville could think that a white Dick is bigger than a black Dick.”😛 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/8 "2015-01-19T20:40:28Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Sorry, didn’t read it. Please read it. Some of the stuff I had to read for school was awful (Frankenstein, anything by Dickens). But some was great- like Moby Dick. I’ve re-read that thing a few times on my own. It has some flaws ( Some parts are written like a play, Ishmael has perfect knowledge of some events he wasn’t present for and which nobody ever told him about). BUT, it is truly a classic. Oh, and Moby Dick is also defined by a wrinkled forehead, a crooked jaw, and many old harpoons still in his flesh. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/9 "2015-01-19T20:54:45Z")
Wasn’t Moby Dick supposed to be as large as a whale? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/10 "2015-01-19T20:57:38Z")
I was going to say that Melville was going for the biggest Dick around, but as post #2 I probably would have gotten whacked again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/11 "2015-01-19T21:46:13Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Please read it. Some of the stuff I had to read for school was awful (Frankenstein, anything by Dickens). But some was great- like Moby Dick. I’ve re-read that thing a few times on my own. It has some flaws ( Some parts are written like a play, Ishmael has perfect knowledge of some events he wasn’t present for and which nobody ever told him about). BUT, it is truly a classic. > > Oh, and Moby Dick is also defined by a wrinkled forehead, a crooked jaw, and many old harpoons still in his flesh. Over 500 pages. Frankenstein and Dickens can be great if you are not forced to read them. Same with Moby Dick. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/12 "2015-01-20T00:17:58Z")
Meville sailed on the whaleship Acushnet from my hometown on January 3, 1841. Across the harbor in New Bedford there is an annual Moby-Dick marathon reading on January 3-4. (This year’s was the 19th.) A slew of guests read the whole thing aloud at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It takes them about 25 hours to do it. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/13 "2015-01-20T00:47:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “Only Melville could think that a white Dick is bigger than a black Dick.”😛 Based on _Billy Budd_ I’d say he had done some research, but apparently not enough. Raw numbers do not have the majesty that a Moby Dick of the imagination needs to impress the reader. “Ninety feet,” the reader may ask, “That’s not so big.” As a symbol Moby Dick is as big as you need him to be. You bring your own Moby Dick to the book and he inflates (engorges?) until you are overawed by his immensity. Yes, I was a literature major for a semester. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/14 "2015-01-20T01:05:06Z")
“There she blows!-there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!” so as big as a snow-hill at the hump. 🙂 I really liked this novel. Off topic did anyone else read the very long and enjoyable “Ahab’s Wife?” [http://www.amazon.com/Ahabs-Wife-Star-gazer-Novel-P-S/dp/0060838744](http://www.amazon.com/Ahabs-Wife-Star-gazer-Novel-P-S/dp/0060838744) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/15 "2015-01-20T01:54:10Z")
So how big was Moby Dick’s Dick? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/16 "2015-01-20T04:34:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > … the book claims that the largest sperm whales can reach a length of ninety feet (larger than any officially recorded sperm whale) … From your link on Mocha Dick: > [@](#): > > In 1902 whalers harpooned and killed an albino sperm whale near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, using a harpoon tipped with an explosive device. The whale was reported to be 90 feet long, covered with scars from many previous unsuccessful attempts to take it; it was estimated to be 100 years old But it’s not clear that this should count as “officially recorded”. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/17 "2015-01-20T04:42:19Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [I don’t think so, but there is an article that says in his margins, he exaggerated the sizes of actual whales and then added a few feet to his own, making it outrageously large.](http://melvillesmarginalia.org/introductions.php?id=52) I heard he discovered a truly remarkable proof of Moby Dick’s real size which the margin was too small to contain. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/18 "2015-01-20T05:52:46Z")
[I have a question about this painting](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--YYlpabPr2s/TtP7H-LExFI/AAAAAAAAApI/IUlWTIAtnaI/s1600/moby%2Bdick%2Bimage.jpg). Are the proportions anywhere near correct, or is this whale’s size exaggerated? (My untrained sense of proportion is that the whale is much too large, and the painting is exaggerated for dramatic purposes. Also, it’s a very impressive painting!) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/19 "2015-01-20T06:25:09Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] I’m sure there’s a joke in here somewhere, I just can’t see it. [/QUOTE] > [@DrDeth](#): > > You do know that Sperm whales are sorta black, right? > > “Only Melville could think that a white Dick is bigger than a black Dick.”😛 Sorry, I forgot the winky face smiley. I could actually think of lots of jokes, I just didn’t want to make them. > [@aceplace57](#): > > So how big was Moby Dick’s Dick? > > 😃 Well, he was no blue whale… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301/20 "2015-01-20T08:02:28Z")
Symbolically speaking, and regardless of whether Melville intended it, the vastness of the ocean is the subconscious and the clean slate. The Whale is the embodiment of the capability of nature, including human nature, to casually hurt humankind, and when humankind turns that aspect of nature into an imagined evil and tries to destroy it, it becomes an obsession with destroying nature and the self, which is a part of nature, which will implacably turn on man and destroy him with an implacability matching the obsession, be that obsession destruction, war or profit. Life will occasionally bite off the leg of the working man. Trying to stab the sun in revenge isn’t dealing with it, it is destructive insanity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-melville-indicate-how-big-moby-dick-was/710301.md?page=2)