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On this day in 1820, an enormous sperm whale rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The first mate described the 85-foot whale's unprovoked attack as enraged and vengeful. The 20-man crew of the Essex rigged improvised sails on three whale boats and attempted to sail over 3,000 …
On November 20, 1820, an enraged sperm whale rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1,300 miles from the nearest land. Twenty sailors survived the attack and quickly outfitted their three small whaleboats to make a journey to safety.
- The Whaleship Essex Sets Sail on Its Final Voyage
- A Sperm Whale Strikes
- The Desperate Crew Resorts to Cannibalism
- The Men Are Saved, 90 Days Later
- The Tale Inspires Herman Melville to Write Moby-Dick
As America marched through the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, whale products became invaluable commodities. Whale blubber was used to make candles and oil, which heated lamps and lubricated machinery. Whale bone was also harvested for the ribs in women’s corsets, umbrellas, and petticoats. As such, whaling was a booming American industr...
Whaling was no easy venture. Whalers would set off from the main ship in teams aboard smaller boats, from which they would try to harpoon a whale and stab it to death with a lance. At least the crew aboard the Essexwere on the main ship when the sperm whale attacked them. Owen Chase, the first mate on the Essex, first saw the whale. At 85 feet long...
Pollard’s crew of 20 spread across three boats. And now, they faced a terrible choice. The captain suggested they sail to the closest land, which was the Marquesas Islands more than 1,000 miles away. But the crew refused, claiming the islands were filled with cannibals. “We feared,” Pollard later recalled, “that we should be devoured by cannibals i...
It wasn’t long before the three boats lost each other. One vanished entirely, then Pollard lost sight of Chase’s boat. Nine weeks had passed on the open sea and one of the four men left alive on Pollard’s ship suggested drawing lots and eating the loser. The short straw went to Owen Coffin– Pollard’s 18-year-old cousin. “My lad, my lad!” Pollard cr...
Back in Nantucket, Captain Pollard’s family rejected him – they couldn’t forgive their kinsman for eating his own cousin. He didn’t find any comfort out at sea either, as he was considered a “Jonah,” or an unlucky captain. So in his 30s, Pollard retired to Nantucket, where he reportedly locked himself in a room and fasted on the anniversary of the ...
Aug 2, 2010 · This week’s presentation is an illustration of the ill-fated voyage of the Whale Ship Essex, the real life whaling voyage that inspired Moby Dick, in Google Earth Tour mode. To view the tour, the companion to this article, first download Google Earth, then download this file.
Dec 9, 2020 · English. 141 pages ; 21 cm. The original account of the whaleship attacked by a whale off the Pacific coast of South America which inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. "Originally published: Narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of the whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket. New York : W.B. Gilley, 1821.
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.
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Jan 12, 2023 · The Essex was a whaling ship that shipwrecked dramatically in 1812. It was hunting sperm whales, which were being over-hunted at the time. To find more whales, the ship ventured into the...
