"I saw Captain Pollard" (l847)
Journal of Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age."
Heroism by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Since writing the foregoing I--sometime about l850-3--saw Capt. Pollard on the island of Nantucket, and exchanged some words with him. To the islanders he was a nobody--to me, the most impressive man, tho' wholly unassuming even humble--that I ever encountered."
Longhand notes by Herman Melville in his copy of Owen Chases' Narrative used while writing Moby Dick
Moby Dick--References to the sinking of the Essex in the "Extracts" and "Chapter 45 The Affidavit"
"At this day Captain Pollard is a resident of Nantucket. I have seen Owen Chase, who was chief mate of the Essex at the time of the tragedy; I have read his plain and faithful narrative; I have conversed with his son; and all this within a few miles of the scene of the catastrophe."
Moby Dick Chapter 45 "The Affidavit"
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