“The irony is that Herman Melville would seize his story and make it the basis of Moby-Dick, one of the greatest novels ever written.” – Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea
Directed and shot by Stephani Gordon, and written and edited by Dan Evans, Shark Island Whaler is the dramatic story of Captain George Pollard, Jr. In the middle of the night on February 11, 1823, the seafaring career of Captain Pollard came to an astounding end in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Having survived the tragic events of the Essex, one of the world’s most infamous seafaring disasters, and the true life events that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Pollard optimistically set sail for the Pacific once again in the whaleship Two Brothers, believing with all his heart “that it was an old adage that the lightning never struck in the same place twice.” In this case it did, and Pollard’s promising career as a whaling captain came to a tragic end on an uncharted reef in the most remote archipelago on earth, and what is now Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists discovered the first clues of the whaleship Two Brothers and began to unlock the mystery of the only Nantucket whaleship ever found on the seafloor.
Shark Island Whaler is an Open Boat Films production for NETA. Directed and photographed by Stephani Gordon. Produced by Kelly Gleason and Stephani Gordon. Story produced and edited by Dan Evans. Music by Steve Steckler.