George Pollard, Jr.

George Pollard Jr. (1791–1870) was the captain of the whalers Essex and Two Brothers, both of which sank. Pollard's life, including his encounter with the sperm whale that sank Essex, served as inspiration for Captain Ahab, the whale-obsessed character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

George Pollard was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the son of Tamar (Bunker) and George Pollard, a ship's captain, at a time when the principal industry there was hunting sperm whales to harvest the oil contained in their blubber and spermaceti. By the time he was 23 he had served on the Essex for four years in the capacities of second mate and first mate from 1815–1819.

In 1819, Pollard was appointed captain of Essex by the owners, Gideon Folger and Sons, and prepared to set sail for the Pacific Ocean in August. Other members of the 21-man crew included Owen Chase as first mate, Matthew Joy as second mate, and six other Nantucket men. Those included Pollard's seventeen-year-old cousin Owen Coffin with whose care and protection Pollard had been entrusted by his aunt, Nancy Bunker Coffin. To fill in the crew, others had to be recruited from Cape Cod and Boston; these were inexperienced seamen and were known as "" by the Nantucketers.

Four days after leaving Nantucket the ship was struck by a sudden storm and suffered a knockdown, having been rolled almost ninety degrees onto her side. Two of the ship’s whaleboats were lost and another was damaged. This mishap was caused in part by miscalculations on the part of Pollard and his officers, and in part by the inexperience of the crew. Pollard declared the damage was so extensive that they should return to Nantucket for repairs, but Chase and Joy persuaded him to go forward to the Azores and hope to replace the whaleboats there.

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