Mocha Dick was a notorious male Sperm Whale that lived in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century. He is associated with the waters near the island of Mocha, off southern Chile. Unlike most sperm whales, Mocha Dick was white, possibly due to albinism. He was the inspiration for the eponymous fictional whale in the 1851 Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick. Mocha Dick was famous for having survived many skirmishes (by some accounts at least 100) with whalers before he was eventually killed. He was large and powerful, capable of wrecking small craft with his flukes. According to J.N. Reynolds, who gathered first-hand observations of Mocha Dick, the whale also had a peculiar method of spouting:
- Instead of projecting his spout obliquely forward, and puffing with a short, convulsive effort, accompanied by a snorting noise, as usual with his species, he flung the water from his nose in a lofty, perpendicular, expanded volume, at regular and somewhat distant intervals; its expulsion producing a continuous roar, like that of vapor struggling from the safety valve of a powerful steam engine.[1]
For his species, Mocha Dick had an enormous number of barnacles, giving him a rugged appearance. According to Reynolds, Mocha Dick was most likely first encountered and attacked sometime prior to the year 1810 off Mocha Island. His survival of the first encounters coupled with his unusual appearance quickly made him famous among Nantucket whalers. Many captains attempted to hunt him after rounding Cape Horn. He was docile and friendly if not attacked, sometimes swimming alongside approaching whale boats. When attacked, however, he was capable of great ferocity and destruction and was widely feared by harpooners. Despite Reynolds' account, sightings of Mocha Dick continued. It seems Mocha Dick continued wrecking ships until 1859, when it is said he was finally killed without struggle by a Swedish whaler off the coast of Brazil. By that time, the once mighty Mocha Dick was described to be already dying of advanced age, blind in one eye, profusely scarred, and having broken and worn-down teeth.
