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- On November 20, 1820, the Essex was attacked by a sperm whale and sank 2,000 miles off South America. Eight sailors were rescued five months later on April 5, 1821.
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Essex was an American whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, which was launched in 1799. On November 20, 1820, while at sea in the southern Pacific Ocean under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr., the ship was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale.
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Essex, American whaling ship that was rammed by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820, and later sank, sending its crew on an arduous journey to safety.
On November 20, 1820, the American whaling ship Essex was rammed by a sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) and sunk. The incident inspired Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby Dick. The Essex had left her home port on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States, more than a year earlier.
Nov 2, 2020 · Accessed June 27, 2024. In November 1820, a vengeful sperm whale sank Captain George Pollard Jr.'s Nantucket whaleship "Essex" in the South Pacific, leaving the crew adrift for 90 days.
Dec 8, 2021 · The Essex set sail in 1819, hoping for a successful whaling expedition. Instead, the ship was sunk by a whale attack, leading to a brutal struggle for survival.
- Carolyn Cox
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 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.
