Classics on the Billboard
The coffee named after a whaling mate
That green-logo cup you carry every morning takes its name from a man aboard a whaling ship.
On the billboard
Starbucks opened its first shop in Seattle. While hunting for a name, the founders settled on Starbuck, the first mate in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. The ship itself, the Pequod, was reportedly on the list too, but it did not sound like something anyone would want to drink.
In the book Moby-Dick · Herman Melville
In the novel, Starbuck is the steady one. Melville introduces him plainly: The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent.
Beside Captain Ahab, who has staked everything on chasing one white whale, Starbuck is the voice that keeps asking what the chase will cost.