Collection Highlight: Edric Connor and Moby Dick

29 January 2025

Research & Collections

29 January 2025

Research & Collections

Collections Officer Rebecca shines a spotlight on Caribbean singer and actor Edric Connor, who features in the fascinating collection of photographs contained in the Captain Adrian Small collection.

Hollywood films may not be the first subject matter which comes to mind when thinking of the maritime collections of the Brunel Institute. The Captain Adrian Small collection was donated to the Trust in 2022 and work has now begun to catalogue and digitise the collection.

This is an unusual collection: from the 1950s, Captain Adrian Small worked sailing ships for Hollywood films. The first film he worked on was the 1956 Moby Dick, directed by John Huston. Small recorded his time as 2nd mate on the sailing vessel Pequod during this production through a remarkable collection of photographs, showing life on set and at sea for those in front of and behind the camera. In these photographs is where we first encounter Edric Connor.

An old photograph showing a group of men seated on the deck of a ship. Adrian Small is seated in the centre. He is a white man with a beard and flat cap and he is smiling. The other men around him are all smiling and each have a hand reached out to hold him.
Photograph of Adrian Small, 2nd mate of the Pequod, surrounded by actors on a vessel on the set of Moby Dick. Edric Connor in costume as Daggoo is on the far right of frame, with a hand on Adrian’s arm.

Please note: this photograph contains racist stereotypes. The white Austrian actor Friedrich von Ledebur is in costume as Queequeg, a South Sea Island chieftain.

Edric Connor played the harpooner Daggoo in Moby Dick. He features as a subject throughout Small’s collection, in both solo portraits and photographs with other cast members during filming, and behind the scenes with Small himself.

Connor made a significant contribution to the relatively small part of Daggoo. He was a musician, and had studied Caribbean folk music, recorded several LPs with his band and eventually trained in and performed opera. In Moby Dick, Daggoo sings a song to inspire the other men during the whale hunt. Connor chose the anonymously authored Jamaican folk song “Hill an’ Gully Rider”. His wife, Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, later noted that director Huston loved the song and allowed Connor’s choice to make it into the film, and that Connor chose it deliberately knowing Caribbean viewers would know the song. She highlighted Connor’s personal commitment to promoting Caribbean artists and accurately depicting Caribbean culture.

An old photograph of Edric Connor stood on the deck of a ship in costume holding a harpoon.
Photograph of Edric Connor (Daggoo), Tom Clegg (Tashtego) and Friedrich von Ledebur (Queequeg) at the bow of the Pequod filming a scene for Moby Dick. Connor holds a harpoon.

Please note: this photograph contains racist stereotypes. The white Austrian actor Friedrich von Ledebur is in costume as Queequeg, a South Sea Island chieftain.

Beyond Moby Dick, Connor acted in eighteen films and several TV shows, and in 1958 was the first Black person to act with the Royal Shakespeare company. He was also a significant radio presence on the BBC, carrying out approximately five hundred broadcasts across several shows and twenty-three years. His commitment to uplifting fellow migrant artists is evident throughout this work: in 1947, when he was offered to revive one of his old radio programmes, he selected one based on which would employ the most musicians.

He also played a significant role in the facilitation and production of Caribbean and Black British performing art. Along with Connor-Mogotsi, he co-founded and ran an agency for Black British actors and one of the first Black British theatre companies. In 1960, he returned to the West Indies to direct a series of short self-funded travelogues, which celebrated Caribbean nature, people and industries.

It has been fascinating finding and highlighting the story of Edric Connor. We are incredibly lucky to have the Small collection at the Trust, and there are many more interesting objects and stories to be discovered as we continue to catalogue it. You can explore our collection online here.

 

Author: Rebecca Davies, Collections Officer

The Brunel Institute

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