The golden age of whaling—in which large ships sailed around the world for several years at a time hunting whales—really only lasted about 50 years, from 1800 to 1850, when oil wells and kerosene came on the scene. *Moby-Dick *is such a definitive work in terms of whaling in the public consciousness that I wonder if the industry would have the same romance (so to speak; obviously, actual whale fishing and rendering is about as disgusting a task as one can imagine) and be as widely known if the book had never been written. Would whaling be relegated more to fringe and local histories, as with other types of fishing endeavors?
It was a fairly important part of the economy. If Melville had not written Moby Dick, I am of the opinion that someone else would have written something about it.
Well, there was also Ned Land in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (arguably inspured by Moby Dick, but maybe not). And the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport. Moby Dick gave whaling an icon, but people would still be up-in-arms about whaling going on, and it wouldn’t be an invisible activity.
yes, whaling would still be know. people may not know what was done with certain parts of the whale… but whaling itself, scrimshaw, basketmaking, etc. would be know.
I think the answer has to be no. Moby Dick remains among the most widely read american novels of the 19th century.
Whaling would certainly be remembered - for example, through this book - but there’s no way its subject would be equally well known had Moby Dick never been published.
I grew up in Connecticut, where whaling was a historically important part of the economy, so we certainly heard about it (and visited Mystic Seaport) before we ever read Moby Dick (and, boy, was that a boring book). (And of course, we had the Hartford Whalers.)