The whaling ship blasted its horns and turned on its water cannons, which sent powerful jets overboard.

NEWYORKER: Neptune��s Navy

Arguably the most popular island, Nuku Hiva is where author Herman Melville jumped out of a whaling ship in 1842 and was captured by the local Taipa tribe.

BBC: A cruise to hidden Polynesia

In 1841, Herman Melville set out to sea from the city on the whaling ship Acushnet, returning after an 18-month voyage to eventually write Moby Dick, the tale of Captain Ahab's obsessive search for the great white whale.

BBC: The haunted land of New England

Then the white barrels, the wooded hills on the far bank of the river, and beyond the hills the other side of Connecticut, the trip to the whaling ship at Mystic Seaport, somewhere out there Cape Cod, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa.

NEWYORKER: Getting Closer

The new nation was a seafaring one, amassing great wealth from ship-building, whaling, fishing and maritime trade.

BBC: Historical day trips from Boston