Maritime Heritage

Filmmakers Capture Maritime Heritage in the Monument

Over the years, underwater filmmakers have traveled to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands alongside scientists to document the place and the work that the researchers are doing. Dive in and swim alongside the underwater archaeologists as they survey the shipwreck sites on the seafloor in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The videos will help you understand the dynamic conditions that make the remote atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a challenging place for sailors!

Lightning Strikes Twice: The Real Life Sequel to Moby Dick. This is the story of a whaleship lost on a remote reef, one very unlucky captain, and a team of archaeologists with the discovery of a lifetime.

In the middle of the night on February 11, 1823, the seafaring career of Captain George Pollard, Jr. came to a dramatic end in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Having survived the tragic events of the Essex, one of the world's most infamous seafaring disasters, and the true life events that inspired Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, Pollard optimistically set sail for the Pacific once again in the whaleship Two Brothers, believing with all his heart "that it was an old adage that the lightning never struck in the same place twice." In this case it did, and Pollard's promising career as a whaling captain came to a tragic end on an uncharted reef in the most remote archipelago on earth, and what is now Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists discovered the first clues of the whaleship Two Brothers and began the unlock the mystery of the only Nantucket whalehhsip ever found on the seafloor.

Click here to watch the full film (You will be directed to a non NOAA server)
Lightning Strikes Twice: The Real Life Sequel to Moby Dick

The short film, Lost on a Reef, directed by Stephani Gordon of Open Boat Films documents the work of maritime archaeologists in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument as they aim to document and interpret the seafaring stories and shipwreck and sunken aircraft sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. This film was shot over the course of a 30 day research expedition to PMNM in 2008.

Click here to watch the full film (You will be directed to a non NOAA server)
Lost on a Reef