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Ahab and Ishmael in Antarctica: How Charles Wilkes's White Continent Gave Rise to the White Whale

Abstract:The U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838–1842) was the first global voyage of exploration launched by the United States government. News of the Expedition's discovery of the Antarctic continent commanded especially intense public interest, setting a precedent for monumental cultural ambitions in the new nation. The Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (1845)—penned by the Expedition's controversial leader Charles Wilkes—was early identified as a significant source for Melville's novels, with Wilkes as a model for Captain Ahab. Yet the Narrative's Antarctic passages, whose incidents most closely prefigure Moby-Dick, have received almost no attention. An examination of Wilkes's attempt to conquer the indomitable Antarctic reveals resonances with both Ahab and Ishmael, and shows how Antarctic ambiguities helped shape the ontologically mysterious White Whale. By dividing Wilkes's qualities and rhetoric between two complementary characters—Ahab and Ishmael—Melville explores the nonhuman sublime, its power to test human physical and epistemological limits, and the driving ambition it provokes. In the process, Melville extends Wilkes's image of the "icy barrier" around Antarctica. This wall, barrier, or mask becomes an origin point for the ambitions—Ahabian, Ishmaelian, Wilkesian and even Melvillian—that energize epic endeavors, including those of the young republic's nascent expansionist imperialism.