Arnold Lovejoy

Arnold Lovejoy is the novel’s central human protagonist, a middle-aged whaling captain whose loyalty to the Ashley family draws him into the disastrous voyage of the Esther. When the story opens he has just returned to New Bedford from a failed cruise that leaves his crew in debt and his own reputation damaged. Haunted by dreams of ice and by memories of seas that once seemed crowded with whales, he accepts the Ashleys’ commission to sail north, find Benjamin Leander, and recover an heirloom golden egg in the hope of repairing his name and securing his family’s future. Lovejoy prides himself on discipline and practical seamanship, and he believes that patience and skill can still control the sea, but his confidence hides anxiety about aging and the shrinking place of whaling in a changing world. As the voyage continues Lovejoy becomes a figure of moral...