

George Pollard, Jr. (1791–1870) was the captain of the whaleships Essex and Two Brothers, both of which sank. Pollard's life, including his encounter with the sperm whale that sank the Essex, served as inspiration for Captain Ahab, the whale-obsessed character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.
These days Pollard is mostly remembered as the prototype for Ahab and for his part in the murder and consumption of his cousin Owen Coffin while he and his companions drifted hopelessly in a whaleboat, but in details like the image of him moving through the darkened streets of Nantucket, it’s possible to glimpse a rather different man. Certainly Melville, who visited him after the publication of Moby Dick, was impressed by him, declaring “[t]o the islanders he was a nobody – to me, the most impressive man, tho’ wholly unassuming even humble – that I ever encountered”. (1)
Married
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1791 |
July 18, 1791
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Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States
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1870 |
January 7, 1870
Age 78
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Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States
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Nantucket, Nantucket County, Massachusetts, United States
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