John DeWolf (sea captain)
Sea captain and merchant
Summary
John DeWolf, also known as John D'Wolf, John D'Wolfe, John DeWolfe, John DeWolf II, Norwest John or Nor'west John, was a sea captain, merchant, and businessman known for his role in the maritime fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, and his influence on the Russian-American Company in Novo-Arkhangelsk in Russian America, and for being an uncle of Herman Melville. Melville was inspired by DeWolf's stories, including an encounter with a large whale that contributed to Melville's Moby-Dick, which Melville describes explicitly in Moby Dick, "Chapter XLV: The Affidavit". "Captain D'Wolf" is also described in the same chapter. John DeWolf was the first American known to have travelled overland across Siberia, and probably the first person to circumnavigate the globe by way of crossing Asia overland.
Originally created by Pfly
9/13/2023, 10:41:03 PM
Modified
5/19/2026, 2:39:39 AM
Recent revisions
fixing infobox and removing [[Category:Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters |deprecated parameters]]; Cleaning up syntax using [[:en:User:Zackmann08/scripts/indent|indent.js]]
/* Later life */ clean up, [[WP:AWB/T|typo(s) fixed]]: 1814-1901 → 1814–1901 (2)
Moving from [[Category:Sea captains]] to [[Category:American sea captains]] Diffusing per [[WP:DIFFUSE]] and/or [[WP:ALLINCLUDED]] using [[c:Help:Cat-a-lot|Cat-a-lot]]
Removing from [[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]] Diffusing per [[WP:DIFFUSE]] and/or [[WP:ALLINCLUDED]] using [[c:Help:Cat-a-lot|Cat-a-lot]]
rm tone tag--seems encyclopedic in tone to me. no talk page explanation. please explain on the talk page what the problem is iwhen adding this tag
cat sort
[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: url-access updated in citation with #oabot.
/* Overland across Siberia */ clean up, replaced: leaarned → learned
I assume the title of the book is like this
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/* Wintering at Petropavlovsk 1806-1807 */ Khlebnikov's mention of striking the whale
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removed [[Category:American slave traders]]; added [[Category:19th-century American slave traders]] using [[WP:HC|HotCat]]
