New Bedford was probably the busiest whaling port in the world at the time, with eighty-seven ships setting off on expeditions in 1850 alone. One of them, the Ann Alexander, would become famous the following year when she was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale – a real-life Moby Dick!
Author’s Note:
The parallel is not entirely fanciful: Melville’s masterpiece was already written but not yet published, and in a contemporary letter, the author commented that the sinking was “really & truly a surprising coincidence… I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.”
Source:
Morris, Thomas. “Horrifying Operations.” The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine. Dutton, An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018. 181. Print.
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