Timor Tom or Old Tom is a sperm whale from the 19th century, referenced in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.
The only reference in the book is:[1]
Was it not so, O Timor Tom! thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long did'st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name, whose spout was oft seen from the palmy beach of Ombay?
— Ishmael, in Herman Melville, "Chapter 45: The Affidavit", Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale (18 October 1851)
Ombay may reference the island of Pantar, across the Ombai Strait from Timor.
Dr. Lawrence Blair in his TV program Myths Magic and Monsters, suggests that Timor Tom was a gigantic albino sperm whale, who did not flee whalers, but attacked them and drowned many of them instead.
Timor Tom, known by other names such as Timor Jack and Timor Tim, was an enormous white whale who engaged in battles with English whalers during the early 1800s in the vicinity of the small islands of Oriental Sonde, specifically Lamalera in the Coral Triangle. This extraordinary creature held a significant connection with the traditional sperm whalers of Lamalera, who are considered one of the oldest in the world. In their beliefs, white sperm whales served as both guardians of boats and ships, as well as overseers of their construction and conception. Thomas Beale regarded Timor Tim as "the protagonist of numerous peculiar tales."[2]
^Melville, Herman (18 October 1851). "45: The Affidavit". Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
^"TIMOR TOM TIM JACK WHITE SPERM WHALE". www.mobydick-hermanmelville.com. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
attacked them and drowned many of them instead. TimorTom, known by other names such as Timor Jack and Timor Tim, was an enormous white whale who engaged...
The Roast of Tom Brady (also billed as The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady) is a celebrity roast special that aired on the streaming service platform...
The Timor Leste Defence Force (Tetum: Forcas Defesa Timor Lorosae, Portuguese: Forças de Defesa de Timor Leste or Falintil-FDTL, often F-FDTL) is the military...
This is a complete list of the 166 shorts in the Tom and Jerry series produced and released between 1940 and 2021. Of these, 162 are theatrical shorts...
Tom and Jerry Tales is an American animated television series featuring the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner...
13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962. Tom and Jerry became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking...
Tom vs Time is an American documentary series created by Gotham Chopra that was released from January 25 to March 12, 2018 on Facebook Watch. The six-episode...
George Thomas Seaver (November 17, 1944 – August 31, 2020), nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "the Franchise", was an American professional baseball pitcher...
Tom Cruise: Unauthorized (1998) Tom Cruise: All the World's a Stage (2006) Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography (2008) Tom Cruise Purple "Will Tom Cruise...
Major Tom as an oblique autobiographical symbol for himself. Major Tom is described as a "junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low"...
Timor Sea Treaty between the Government of East Timor and the Government of Australia was signed between Australia and East Timor in Dili, East Timor...
Netherlands, for which TomTom made software and where Vigreux was previously sales director, to join TomTom. He had previously invested in TomTom. In 2001, the...
Thomas Jasper "Tom" Cat Sr. is a fictional character and one of the two titular main protagonists (the other being Jerry Mouse) in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's...
see: President of East Timor East Timor Politics of East Timor President of East Timor Prime Minister of East Timor East Timor (Indonesian province)#Governors...
Tom yum or tom yam (UK: /ˌtɒm ˈjæm, - ˈjʌm/, US: /- ˈjɑːm/; Thai: ต้มยำ, RTGS: tom yam [tôm jām] ) is a family of hot and sour Thai soups. The strong...
to Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy on Instagram Tom Hardy at IMDb Tom Hardy at AllMovie Tom Hardy at the TCM Movie Database Tom Hardy at Rotten Tomatoes Tom Hardy...
Gilbert Hemsley, who was kind of a world famous lighting designer at the time" Tom Wopat at the Internet Broadway Database "Playbill News: Glengarry 's Wopat...
Tom Nook, known in Japan as Tanukichi (たぬきち), is a fictional character in the Animal Crossing series who operates the village store (or the Resident Services...
older brother, David, died at the age of three leaving Tom an only child for much of the time he was growing up, although his parents did foster a young...
TomTom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth and as a side project from Talking Heads...
Global Information