# Timor Tom

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{{Short description|Individual sperm whale}}
'''Timor Tom''' or '''Old Tom''' is a [sperm whale](/source/sperm_whale) from the 19th century, referenced in [Herman Melville](/source/Herman_Melville)'s ''[Moby-Dick](/source/Moby-Dick)''.

The only reference in the book is:<ref name="Moby">{{cite book|last1=Melville|first1=Herman|title=Moby-Dick; or The Whale|date=18 October 1851|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm|accessdate=7 December 2017|language=English|chapter=45: The Affidavit}}</ref>{{Quote |text=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?
|author=Herman Melville |title="Chapter 45: The Affidavit" |source=''Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale'' (18 October 1851) |character=[Ishmael](/source/Ishmael_(Moby-Dick))
}}

[Ombay](/source/Ombay) may reference the island of [Pantar](/source/Pantar), across the [Ombai Strait](/source/Ombai_Strait) from [Timor](/source/Timor).

Dr. [Lawrence Blair](/source/Lawrence_Blair) in his TV program ''Myths Magic and Monsters'', suggests that Timor Tom was a gigantic albino [sperm whale](/source/sperm_whale), who did not flee [whalers](/source/whaling), but attacked them and drowned many of them instead.
==See also==
*[List of individual cetaceans](/source/List_of_individual_cetaceans)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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Category:Individual sperm whales
Category:Moby-Dick
Category:Maritime folklore

{{whale-stub}}

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