Regarding 'Princeton language style: Pequod' (Oct. 7):
When James Robertson '91 chose the name "Pequod" for his little copy center on 6 Nassau St., the last thing on my former college roommate and current business partner's mind was that it might inspire a 'Prince' article.
Short and to the point: In 1989 our business was indeed named after the doomed vessel in "Moby Dick." I was an English major, and Jim joined me in Professor William Howarth's literature of the American Renaissance class. We happened to be reading Melville's classic when he scraped together enough money to buy our freedom from an evil and worthless franchiser, therefore creating the need to come up with a name for the fledgling business. As the article surmised, the "P" connection to Princeton was indeed a factor in his choice, as well as the weirdness of the "Q."
We learned later that Starbucks Coffee had initially chosen the name "Pequod Coffee," but consultants convinced ownership that no one would ever drink a cup of Pequod. I suppose that's why consultants make all that money.
In conclusion I offer my favorite passage from "Moby Dick, edited for brevity and relevancy, in which Melville masterfully depicts the final fate of the Pequod:
"'The ship? Great God, where is the ship?' Soon they through dim, bewildering mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana; only the uppermost masts out of water. . . . And now, concentric circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight." Andre Liu '91
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