Toward the end of the article:

For his part, Captain Pollard was rescued a day after the Two Brothers sank. He returned to Nantucket, where he settled into a sedate, quiet and decidedly nonseafaring life, though other sailors quietly deemed him a "Jonah," or star-crossed mariner.

He eventually took a job as the town's night watchman. In the 1850s, he was visited by a 30-something writer who had just published a novel — "Moby-Dick" — to middling reviews. A former whaler himself, Melville had sought out Pollard and found, according to Mr. Philbrick, a kind of soul mate in the older man.

"Both of them had experienced the ultimate in terms of living," he said, "and then went on quietly in their lives ignored by everyone."

Indeed, Melville worked as a customs inspector until several years before his death in 1891. Pollard died — alone but apparently beloved by fellow Nantucketers — in 1870. But while Melville's reputation soared, few know of Captain Pollard.