What is the name of the real albino sperm whale that inspired Moby Dick?

The real albino sperm whale associated with the inspiration for Moby Dick is Mocha Dick. The whale lived near Mocha Island, off Chile’s coast, and became famous among nineteenth-century whalers for surviving repeated attacks.

Explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds described Mocha Dick in an article published in The Knickerbocker magazine in 1839. Reynolds portrayed the whale as exceptionally large, powerful, white, and covered with barnacles. Accounts claimed that it had survived more than 100 encounters with whalers before it was reportedly killed in 1838.

Melville drew on this legend while creating the fictional Moby Dick, but the novel’s whale is not a literal biography of Mocha Dick. The story also incorporates the 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex, which was rammed by a sperm whale. Melville combined these real maritime episodes with symbolism, biblical imagery, and his own seafaring experience.

The name changed from Mocha to Moby, likely helping transform a reported animal into one of literature’s most famous fictional creatures.