I was watching Master and Commander deleted scenes and there is a scene where they see, then at night hear, a whale and it freaks out the whole crew. Here is the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAguied64J0#t=595
The film takes place in 1805, so late 18th, early 19th century. If you haven't read the books, they are considered extremely accurate and some of the best historical fiction ever written. Now, that being said, I haven't read all of them (there are over a dozen) so I don't know if this scene is a creation of the author, or of the director Peter Weir. Either way, is this accurate?
We all have seen old maps with monsters on them, which was probably just whales, but did crews know what they were? Even if they did know, what would the chances be of them hearing whales? Also remember, this scene takes place during a week of no wind, so they are just sitting there stationary not potentially scaring off the whales. They are also worried because they think an officer is bad luck (a Jonah).
Mankind has engaged in whaling (the hunting of whales) since prehistoric times. There are countless illustrations of whaling that predate the 19th century, which would lead one to believe that sailors in Napoleonic times would have at least known about the existence of whales, if only from hearsay. I have not read the Master and Commander books, but I would not rule out the possibility that the writers of the script came up with this scene on their own.
An excellent example of mentioned art is The Whaling Grounds (c. 1654-1708) by Abraham Storck.
