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Owen Chase (October 7, 1797 – March 7, 1869) was first mate of the whaler Essex, which sank in the Pacific Ocean on November 20, 1820, after being rammed by a sperm whale. Soon after his return to Nantucket, Chase wrote an account of the shipwreck and the attempts of the crew to reach land in small boats.
Learn how the whaler Essex was sunk by a whale in 1820, and how the first mate Owen Chase survived and told his tale to Herman Melville. Find out how Melville used Chase's account to create Captain Ahab and his crew in Moby-Dick.
Sep 12, 2023 · Owen Chase was the first mate of the whaleship Essex, which was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820. His account of the tragedy inspired Moby Dick, a classic novel by Herman Melville.
Dec 28, 2015 · Captain Pollard and Charles Ramsdell were discovered gnawing on the bones of their shipmates in one boat. Owen Chase, Lawrence and Nickerson also survived to tell the tale.
- Angela Cockayne
As first mate of Essex, 21-year-old Owen Chase left Nantucket on August 12, 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year whaling voyage. On the morning of November 20, 1820, a sperm whale (alleged to be around 85 feet, 26 m), twice rammed Essex, sinking her 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of South America.
However, First Mate Owen Chase—possibly worried that the men, believing the knockdown was a bad omen, might desert—convinced him to continue. Since departing Nantucket, the crew had been searching for sperm whales.
The adventure, which is one of the world’s great triumphs of survival, has been recorded in an account of stunning vividness, First Mate Owen Chase’s Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantuchet.
