(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hidden History: The Wreck of the Whaler "Essex" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-07 The wreck of the whaling ship Essex in 1819 horrified the world, but it became one of the inspirations for Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick, as well as being remade into a 2015 Hollywood movie by Ron Howard. "Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history. Harpooned whale attacking a whaleboat photo from Wiki Commons I’ve already done an in-depth piece on the history of the whaling industry, here. The short version: whaling was an important industry in the 19th century and it was mostly dominated worldwide by the American whaling ships from New England. Whales were caught by harpooning them in open water (from large row boats) and then towing the carcass to the ship to be shorn of blubber that was rendered into oil (a process known as “flensing”) and to be butchered into parts (known as “tonguing”). The whales that were most sought-after were the Right Whales, which had a lot of valuable oil in their bodies and which floated at the surface when dead, making them the “right” whale for hunting. In August 1819, the whaler Essex set sail from Nantucket Harbor. Commanded by 29-year old Captain George Pollard Jr and his 21-year old First Mate, Owen Chase, she carried a crew of 21, one-third of them free African-Americans. Two of the crew—14 year old Thomas Nickerson and 16 year old Owen Coffin (the Captain’s cousin) were on their first seafaring journey. Built in 1799 and measuring 88 feet long and 25 feet wide, this would be the ship’s seventh voyage. Pollard planned to take them to the rich whale-hunting areas of the South Pacific, in what they expected would be a two or three year round trip. They ran into trouble almost immediately. Just two days after setting sail, the Essex ran into a severe storm off the east coast of the US, which damaged two of the five whaleboats. Two months later the ship had reached Peru. This had once been a lucrative whaling grounds, but decades of overharvesting had reduced the whale population to a low level, and although the Essex did make one kill here, Captain Pollard decided to continue on to the Pacific. While docked in Peru, one of the men deserted, reducing the crew to 20. It took almost a year for the Essex to sail down the east coast of North and South America, through the Straits of Magellan past Tierra del Fuego, and up the west coast of South America to the Galapagos Islands. Here, while anchored at Charles Island (now known as Floreana), the Essex dodged another disaster. While the crew was ashore collecting the giant tortoises that lived on the islands (they made a convenient food resource for long voyages), one of the sailors set fire to the dry grass, and the flames rapidly whipped out of control and swept across nearly the entire island, causing the men to frantically take to their rowboats and paddle out to the safety of the ship. By November 1920, the Essex had reached an area of the Pacific known as the “Offshore Grounds”. This was one of the most isolated places on the planet—some 1500 nautical miles away from the Galapagos, and over 1,000 nautical miles from the nearest land, the Society Islands. Here, on November 20, the lookout spotted whale spouts. Immediately, three of the whaleboats were lowered and harpoons were readied. Captain Pollard accompanied one of the boats, while First Mate Chase remained onboard the Essex. Everyone knew that whaling was a dangerous business. Harpooned whales often dragged the whaleboat along across the water, a stunt that was known as a “Nantucket sleigh-ride”. Occasionally a wounded whale would ram a whaleboat and sink it, dumping the men into the water. But on this day one of the whales—a large male Sperm Whale estimated at 85 feet long—did something that was very unusual. It attacked the ship. As Chase watched, the whale aimed straight for the side of the Essex and rammed it, crushing the wooden planks and stoving in the side of the ship. Water rushed in and the vessel began to list. Captain Pollard returned to the ship and ordered his men to begin packing all the food, water and navigational equipment they could into the three undamaged whaleboats. It took two days for the Essex to finally roll over and sink. The 20 men were divided among the three boats, with each commanded by an officer and given 65 gallons of water and one-third of the available food. It would, they all knew, not be enough to last for very long. There was a debate about where to go. The closest land, the Society Islands, was about 25 days away by paddle—but the popular rumor at the time was that it was inhabited by “cannibals” and nobody wanted to go there. So it was decided instead to head out into the open Pacific and try to reach the commercial shipping lanes, where they would be picked up and rescued by a passing ship. For the next 30 days the three whaleboats stayed together, covering about a thousand miles, until they reached an uninhabited island which they believed to be Ducie Island. (In fact, it was Henderson Island, one of the Pitcairns.) Here they found a supply of fresh water and were able to collect some seabirds and eggs. When the time came to leave, three of the crew elected to stay behind. Though they knew there weren’t enough resources on the island to last long, they decided that they had a better chance of being rescued here than out in the open sea. That left 17 men in the three boats. They paddled and drifted across the Pacific, watching their supplies slowly run out. They had unknowingly passed just to the south of Easter Island, and continued to drift towards South America. The first to die was Second Mate Matthew Joy, on January 10, 1821. Shortly afterwards, one of the boats, led by First Mate Chase, got separated from the other two. Ten days after Joy’s death, another crew member in his whaleboat, Lawson Thomas, died. This time, desperate and with supplies almost exhausted, the remaining men carved up his body for food. Chase’s boat, meanwhile, drifted for 27 days before their first death, Richard Peterson. His body was put over the side. However, when Isaac Cole died three weeks after, his body was divided into pieces and used for food. By this time, Captain Pollard’s whaleboat had drifted away from its companion boat, and was now on its own. After a few more weeks, it was decided to draw lots and to kill one of the survivors for food. The Captain’s cousin, 16-year old Owen Coffin, drew the short straw, and was shot by another of the crewmen. On February 18, 1821, after 91 days afloat, First Mate Chase’s boat, with three survivors (including the 14-year old Nickerson), was found by the British ship Indian. Five days after that, Captain Pollard and Charles Ramsdell were found in their boat some 300 miles away, by the American whaler Dauphin. These five survivors told officials about the three men who had been left behind on the island, and these were rescued, alive, in April. The third of the Essex’s whaleboats was not found until several years later—beached on Ducie Island with three skeletons aboard. In total, 8 of the Essex’s 20 crew had survived. Seven of the dead had been cannibalized by their crewmates. It was a sensational story that was splashed in the press all around the world. One person who eventually heard the story was Herman Melville. As a young man, Melville had worked as a teacher for a time, left for the romance of the sea and served as a sailor on several ships, and then in 1839 had deserted from a whaler called the Acushnet, jumping ship at the Marquesas Islands. By 1843 he had made his way to Hawaii, and then joined the US Navy, serving across the Pacific until October 1844 when he was discharged in Boston. Returning to New York, Melville was encouraged by his family to write down the story of his adventures, and he proceeded to write a number of fictionalized stories based on his travels in the Pacific. The first, in 1846, was titled Typee, and told the story of his time in the Marquesas. Another book, titled Omoo, was published in 1847 and recounted his adventures in Tahiti, including being briefly jailed for “mutiny” along with his crewmates. In 1849 came Mardi, an allegorical tale based on his Pacific travels. None of these books were a commercial success, however, and critics generally panned them. Another novel in 1850 titled White-Jacket, about life in the US Navy, won some critical praise but made very little money. By 1849, Melville, with encouragement from his friend and neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne, had begun work on a new novel, to be based on his whaling experiences. While whaling in the Pacific, the young Melville had sailed with William Henry Chase, the son of the Essex First Mate Owen Chase. Through William, Melville obtained a signed copy of Owen’s “Narrative of the Wreck of the Essex”--his account of the horrific story. Melville also drew heavily from the stories he had heard about a semi-legendary Sperm Whale in the South Pacific known as “Mocha Dick”, who defied all efforts to capture him. Published in 1850, the new novel was titled Moby Dick. Despite Melville’s high hopes for the novel, Moby Dick sold only a few thousand copies and was treated lukewarm by the critics. Chastened, Melville wrote a couple more novels, which also failed, then turned to poetry and short stories. In order to make a living, he worked for the New York Customs Office for almost 20 years and did occasional lectures about his travels in the Pacific and in Europe. Melville died in1891, mostly unknown and forgotten. His New York Times obituary managed to mis-spell the title of his only well-known work, setting it as Mobie Dick. It was not until decades after his death that Moby Dick was finally recognized by critics as a classic of 19th century American literature. In 2000, author Nathaniel Philbrick wrote a book titled In the Heart of the Sea which, based partly on the Narrative of the Wreck of the Essex by Owen Chase, retold the tale of the shipwreck and its aftermath. In 2015, a Hollywood movie, based on the book and directed by Ron Howard, was released. 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