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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 .
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.
Dec 8, 2021 · HISTORY. The Harrowing Ordeal of the Essex, the Ship That Was Sunk by a Whale. This terrifying wreck, and its cannibalistic aftermath, inspired Moby Dick. By Carolyn Cox | Published Dec 8, 2021. 'Sinking of the Nantucket Whaleship Essex by a Whale on 20 November 1820' by Cyprien Gaulon, c. 1821. Photo Credit: Nantucket Historical Association.
- Carolyn Cox
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Nov 2, 2020 · Published November 2, 2020. Updated February 27, 2024. After the whaleship "Essex" was sunk by a vengeful sperm whale, its crew was left on the high seas for 90 days — causing them to resort to cannibalism. Camden Public LibraryThe Essex, the ship Moby-Dick is based on, was sunk by a vengeful whale.
By November of 1820, after months of a prosperous voyage and a thousand miles from the nearest land, whaleboats from the Essex had harpooned whales that dragged them out toward the horizon in...
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.
Nov 20, 2008 · The three-masted […] 1820: The whaling ship Essex is rammed and sunk by a sperm whale 2,000 miles off the west coast of South America. The ordeal of the crew inspires Herman Melville's...