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The Plaskett Family

More than a century on the Big Sur coast

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The Moby Dick Connection - Marriage to the Essex Captain's Sister

· 1820-1845

A Plaskett captain married the sister of the Essex's captain — the shipwreck that inspired Moby-Dick.

Captain William Plaskett of Nantucket married Nancy Pollard — the sister of Captain George Pollard Jr., commander of the whaleship Essex.

In 1820, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. The surviving crew drifted for months in small boats. Facing starvation, they drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed so the others could live. Captain Pollard was forced to shoot and eat his own cousin, Owen Coffin.

This disaster became one of the most famous maritime tragedies in history and directly inspired Herman Melville’s MOBY DICK.

Captain William Plaskett married into this legacy. His portrait hangs today in the Nantucket Historical Association, alongside the Essex artifacts. The Plaskett family is connected by blood to the real-life story behind America’s greatest novel.

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