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“not sperm whales like the fictional Moby Dick

‘The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby-Dick’
The whaler Essex was indeed sunk by a whale—and that’s only the beginning’

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/

‘...By November of 1820, after months of a prosperous voyage and a thousand miles from the nearest land, whaleboats from the Essex had harpooned whales that dragged them out toward the horizon in what the crew called “Nantucket sleigh rides.” Owen Chase, the 23-year-old first mate, had stayed aboard the Essex to make repairs while Pollard went whaling. It was Chase who spotted a very big whale—85 feet in length, he estimated—lying quietly in the distance, its head facing the ship. Then, after two or three spouts, the giant made straight for the Essex, “coming down for us at great celerity,” Chase would recall—at about three knots. The whale smashed head-on into the ship with “such an appalling and tremendous jar, as nearly threw us all on our faces.”

The whale passed underneath the ship and began thrashing in the water. “I could distinctly see him smite his jaws together, as if distracted with rage and fury,” Chase recalled. Then the whale disappeared. The crew was addressing the hole in the ship and getting the pumps working when one man cried out, “Here he is—he is making for us again.” Chase spotted the whale, his head half out of water, bearing down at great speed—this time at six knots, Chase thought. This time it hit the bow directly under the cathead and disappeared for good.

The water rushed into the ship so fast, the only thing the crew could do was lower the boats and try fill them with navigational instruments, bread, water and supplies before the Essex turned over on its side.

Pollard saw his ship in distress from a distance, then returned to see the Essex in ruin. Dumbfounded, he asked, “My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?”

“We have been stove by a whale,” his first mate answered....

Cool story!

Whales aren’t stupid.

True story: Many years ago, I was sort of watching a National Geographic show while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. The part about whale um, reproduction, came along, and I looked up to see male whale um, you know — parts — towering up out of the ocean like New York skyscrapers. I was shocked!

My husband was doing some paperwork in the home pffice, so I pressed the intercom button and said “You gotta come see this! Whale weenies five storeys tall!”

Little did I know, the intercom also blasted from the rear deck and was heard by our neighbors hosting a big backyard barbeque. Oops!

I never lived it down, but at least the neighbors and their guests had a sense of humor (and yes, rushed inside to see the sights on the TV at the time).