Moby Dick map

I found this at: http://www.nickpage.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/1831s.jpg

And then check this out: an interactive journey that retraces the Pequod's path. http://awesome.good.is/features/011/Wanderlust/index.html There are all sorts of literary as well as real paths to follow.

Now look at what this says about the book:

Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick examined the American whaling
industry, using the whaling ship as a microcosm for an expanding world. People
from across the globe lived below the Pequod’s decks, an early indication of the
globalizing power of industry. Even more so, the Pequod’s voyage and final
demise (and Captain Ahab’s quest to find the eponymous white whale who had eaten
his leg) are an indelible part of America’s literary tradition.

Is this twenty-first century criticism that uses hindsight? Would Melville have really thought this?