Talk:Duke of Portland (whaler)

Veracity
There is some reason to doubt the veracity of the original story. All accounts seem to trace back (verbatim) to a letter by a missionary some years later passing on hearsay. Duke of Portland is a strange name for an American whaler. The National Maritime Digital Library has no whaler by that name, nor any captain on any whaler named Lovat Melon. The whaling archives of the New Bedford Library too has no trace of a Duke of Portland or a "Lovat Melon".(New Bedford Library Special Collectins: Whaling Archive.) There was a British whaler named Duke of Portland that was operating in the area at the time, but she was not attacked, and in fact went on to make more voyages until about 1810.Acad Ronin (talk) 16:03, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
 * No suitable vessel named Portland, either.Acad Ronin (talk) 18:50, 2 December 2022 (UTC)