His name wasn't Ahab, But Capt. George Pollard Jr. was salty enough to inspire Moby Dick author Herman Melville’s classic character, after his first whaling ship was famously rammed by a sperm whale and sunk in 1820. This spring, Pollard Jr.’s second lost vessel, Two Brothers, was discovered by NOAA maritime archeologists in a remote part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, 600 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The find is especially significant because it’s the first documented discovery of a 19th-century whaling ship from Nantucket, birthplace of the whaling industry in America. Cast iron, glass and ceramic artifacts, including an anchor, lances and harpoon tips, are being recovered from the 1823 shipwreck off French Frigate Shoals and will eventually be displayed at the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo on the Big Island.

For more information, visit www.papahanaumokuakea.gov