Essex (whaleship)
| Career (United States) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Essex |
| Laid down: | Nantucket, Massachusetts |
| Fate: | Struck by a sperm whale and sunk, 20 Nov., 1820 |
| Notes: | Sunk 0° 4' 0" S latitude, 119° 0' 0" W longitude |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 238 tons |
| Length: | 87 feet (27 m) long |
| Notes: | Four whaleboats, 20-30 ft long |
|
Crew of the Essex |
|
Captain Matthew Joy † Thomas Chappel William Bond † Sailors Owen Coffin † *deserted in Ecuador, Sept 1820 |
The Essex was an American whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts. The ship, captained by George Pollard, Jr., was widely known for being attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1820 – an incident that served as inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick.
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[edit] Ship and crew
The Essex was an elderly ship, but so many of her voyages were profitable she gained the reputation as a "lucky" vessel. Pollard and his first mate, Owen Chase, had served together on her previous, equally successful, trip, and it led to their promotions. Only 29, Pollard was one of the youngest men ever to command a whaling ship. Owen Chase was 23, and the youngest member of the crew was the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, who was only 15.
She had recently been totally refitted, but at 87 feet (27 m) long, and weighing 238 tons,[1] unladen, she was small for a whaleship. The Essex was equipped with four separate whaleboats, each about 28 feet in length, which were launched from the ship. These boats were built for speed rather than durability, being Clinker built, with planks that overlapped each other rather than fitting flush together with more watertight seams.[2]
[edit] Voyage
The Essex left Nantucket on August 12, 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage to the whaling grounds off the west coast of South America. Two days after leaving port the ship was hit by a squall that knocked her on her beam ends, nearly sinking her. The topgallant sail was lost and three whaleboats were destroyed. Deciding to continue without replacing the boats and repairing the damage, the Essex rounded Cape Horn in January 1820. This passage took a full five weeks, which was extreme even for that time; combined with the unsettling earlier incident there began to be talk of ill-omens. These were put aside as the Essex began the long spring and summer hunt in the warm waters of the south Pacific, going up the western coast of South America and reaching Hood Island in the Galapagos Islands group on October 8. Finding the area nearly fished out, other whalers they encountered told them of a newly discovered hunting ground, (known as the "offshore ground") located at 5–10 degrees south latitude and 105–125 degrees west longitude, in the South Pacific, roughly 2500 nautical miles (4,600 km) to the south and west.
In the early days of Pacific whaling, this was an immense distance to travel out from land, and the area, with its many islands rumored to be populated by cannibals, was an unknown quantity.
[edit] Whale attack
Thousands of miles from the coast of South America, tension was mounting among the officers of the Essex, in particular between Pollard and Chase. The launched whaleboats had come up empty for days, and Chase's boat had been damaged by a whale surfacing directly beneath it. But at eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts and three of the ship's four remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a sperm whale pod.
On the leeward side of the Essex Chase's boat harpooned a whale, but its fluke struck the boat and opened up a seam, resulting in their having to cut his line from the whale and put back to the ship for repairs. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate's boats had each harpooned a whale and were being dragged towards the horizon in what was known as a Nantucket sleighride. Chase was repairing the damaged boat on board when the crew observed a whale, that was much larger than normal (alleged to be around 85 feet (26 m)), acting strangely. It lay motionless on the surface with its head facing the ship, then began to move towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. The whale rammed the ship and then went under, battering it and causing it to tip from side to side. Finally surfacing close on the starboard side of the Essex with its head by the bow and tail by the stern, the whale appeared to be stunned and motionless. Chase prepared to harpoon it from the deck when he realized that its tail was only inches from the rudder, which the whale could easily destroy if provoked by an attempt to kill it. Fearing to leave the ship stranded thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he relented. The whale recovered and swam several hundred yards ahead of the ship and turned to face the bow.
"I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods (550 yards) directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed (around 24 knots or 44kph), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship." —Owen Chase.
The whale crushed the bow like an eggshell, driving the 238-ton vessel backwards. The whale finally disengaged its head from the shattered timbers and swam off, never to be seen again, leaving the Essex quickly going down by the bow. Chase and the remaining sailors frantically tried to add rigging to the only remaining whaleboat, while the steward ran below to gather up whatever navigational aids he could find.
"The captain's boat was the first that reached us. He stopped about a boat's length off, but had no power to utter a single syllable; he was so completely overpowered with the spectacle before him. He was in a short time, however, enabled to address the inquiry to me, "My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?" I answered, "We have been stove by a whale." —Owen Chase.
[edit] Survivors
The ship sank 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of South America. After spending two days salvaging what supplies they could, the twenty-one sailors set out in the three small whaleboats with wholly inadequate supplies of food and fresh water. The closest known islands, the Marquesas, were more than 1,200 mi (1,900 km) to the west and Captain Pollard intended to make for them but the crew, led by Owen Chase, feared the islands may be inhabited by cannibals and voted to make for South America. Unable to sail against the Trade winds, the boats had to sail south for 1,000 mi (1,600 km) before they could use the Westerlies to turn towards South America, which would still lie another 3,000 mi (4,800 km) to the east.
Literally within hours of the crew beginning to die of thirst the boats landed on uninhabited Henderson Island, within the modern-day British territory of the Pitcairn Islands. On Henderson Island they found a small freshwater spring and the men gorged on birds, fish, and vegetation. However, after one week, they had exhausted the island's food resources and on December 26 concluded that they would starve if they remained much longer. Three men, William Wright, Seth Weeks and Thomas Chapple, who were the only white members of the crew who were not natives of Nantucket, opted to stay behind on Henderson. The remaining Essex crewmen resumed the journey on New Year's Eve, but within three days had exhausted the fish and birds they had collected for the voyage, leaving only a small reserve of bread, salvaged from the Essex. One by one, the men began to die.
[edit] Chase boat
On January 10, Matthew Joy died and on the following day the boat carrying Owen Chase, Richard Peterson, Isaac Cole, Benjamin Lawrence and Thomas Nickerson became separated from the others during a squall. Peterson died on January 18 and like Joy, was sewn in his clothes and buried at sea, as was the custom. On February 8, Isaac Cole died but with food running out they kept his body and, after a discussion, the men resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. By February 15 the three remaining men had again run out of food and on February 18, were spotted and rescued by the British whaleship Indian 90 days after the sinking of the Essex.
[edit] Pollard and Hendricks boats
Obed Hendricks's boat exhausted their food supplies on January 14 with Pollard's men exhausting theirs on January 21. Lawson Thomas had died on January 20 and it was now decided they had no choice but to keep the body for food. Charles Shorter died on January 23, Isiah Shepard on January 27 and Samuel Reed on January 28. Later that day the two boats separated with the one carrying Obed Hendricks, Joseph West and William Bond never to be seen again.
By February 1 the food had run out and the situation in Captain Pollard's boat became quite critical. The men drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed for the survival of the crew. A young man named Owen Coffin, Captain Pollard's 17 year old cousin, whom he had sworn to protect, drew the black spot. Pollard allegedly offered to protect his cousin but Coffin is said to have replied "No, I like my lot as well as any other." Lots were drawn again to determine who would be Coffin's executioner. His young friend, Charles Ramsdell, drew the black spot. Ramsdell shot Coffin, and his remains were consumed by Pollard, Brazillai Ray, and Charles Ramsdell. On February 11, Ray also died. For the remainder of their journey, Pollard and Ramsdell survived by gnawing on the bones of Coffin and Ray. They were rescued when almost within sight of the South American coast by the Nantucket whaleship Dauphin on February 23, 95 days after the Essex sank. Both men by that time were so completely dissociative that they did not even notice the Dauphin alongside them and became terrified upon seeing their rescuers.
[edit] Rescue and reunion
Pollard, Chase, Ramsdell, Lawrence, and Nickerson were reunited in the port of Valparaíso, where they informed officials there of their three shipmates stranded on Henderson Island. A ship destined on a trans-Pacific passage was ordered to look for the men on Henderson. Although close to death, the three men were eventually rescued.
By the time the last of the eight survivors were rescued on April 5, 1821 the corpses of seven fellow sailors had been consumed. All eight returned to the sea within months of their return to Nantucket. Herman Melville later speculated that all would have survived had they followed Captain Pollard's recommendation and sailed west.
[edit] Aftermath
Captain George Pollard, Jr. returned to sea to captain the whaleship Two Brothers. After it was wrecked on the French Frigate Shoals during a storm off the coast of Hawaii on his first voyage, he retired from whaling and became Nantucket's night watchman. Every November 20, he would lock himself in his room and fast in memory of the men of the Essex.
First Mate Owen Chase wrote an account of the disaster, the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex; this was used by Herman Melville as one of the inspirations for his novel Moby-Dick. Memories of the harrowing ordeal haunted Chase. He suffered terrible headaches and nightmares. Later in his life, Chase began hiding food in the attic of his Nantucket house on Orange Street and was eventually institutionalized.[3]
The cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, became a captain in the Merchant Service and later wrote another account of the sinking titled The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats which was not published until 1984 by the Nantucket Historical Association. Nickerson wrote his account late in his life and it was lost until 1960. It was not until 1980, when it came into the hands of Nantucket whaling expert Eduardo Stackpole, that its significance was realized.
Charles Ramsdell captained the whaleship General Jackson before his retirement. Benjamin Lawrence went on to captain the whaleships Dromo and Huron before retiring to become a farmer. William Wright returned to whaling and drowned during a hurricane in the West Indies. Seth Weeks retired to Cape Cod. Thomas Chapple is believed to have become a missionary preacher.
Most of the survivors at some time or another wrote accounts of the disaster, some of which differ considerably on details regarding the behavior of various survivors.
[edit] Legacy
As noted above, word of the sinking reached a young Herman Melville when, while serving on the whaleship Acushnet, he met the son of Owen Chase who was serving on another whaleship. Coincidentally, the two ships encountered each other less than 100 mi (160 km) from where the Essex sank. Chase lent his father's account of the ordeal to Melville, who read it at sea and was inspired by the idea that a whale was capable of such violence. Melville later met Captain Pollard, writing inside his copy of Chase's narrative, "Met Captain Pollard on Nantucket. To most islanders a nobody. To me, one of the most extraordinary men I have ever met." In time, he wrote Moby-Dick: or, The Whale, in which a sperm whale is said to be capable of similar acts. Melville's book draws its inspiration from the first part of the Essex story, ending with the sinking.
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a National Book Award winning work of maritime history by Nathaniel Philbrick. It tells the story of the Essex, including the point of view of Nickerson in addition to that of Chase.
The tale of the Essex is retold by staff members almost daily at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.
The story was also the inspiration for a notable popular song, the title track to the band Mountain's 1971 album Nantucket Sleighride.
The story of the Essex was used by the 2009 BBC TV series South Pacific in episode 3, "Endless Blue", to illustrate the difficulty of survival for humans in the open ocean.
[edit] See also
- Ann Alexander, a ship sunk by a whale on August 20, 1851
- Custom of the Sea
- R v Dudley and Stephens
- The Raft of the Medusa
- The Divinity of Oceans, an album conceptually based upon these events by German funeral doom band, Ahab
[edit] References
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 241, citing original 1799 specifications.
- ^ The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex BBC
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 244.
- Philbrick, Nathaniel (2001). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-100182-8. OCLC 46949818.
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[edit] Further reading
- Chase, Owen (1821). Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. New York: W. B. Gilley. OCLC 12217894. http://books.google.com/books?id=qgaD97DaxfQC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Narrative+of+the+Most+Extraordinary+and+Distressing+Shipwreck+of+the+Whale-Ship+Essex&source=bl&ots=iJ8Ja_70fy&sig=_jnoOwXXE-O88qGjUTvME4q57dM&hl=en&ei=1VnrS9efO8SqlAeYyY3VCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Narrative%20of%20the%20Most%20Extraordinary%20and%20Distressing%20Shipwreck%20of%20the%20Whale-Ship%20Essex&f=false. Also in Heffernan, Thomas Farel, Stove by a whale: Owen Chase and the Essex, Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press ; [New York] : distributed by Columbia University Press, 1981.
- Nickerson, Thomas (1984) [1876]. The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats. Nantucket: Nantucket Historical Society. OCLC 11613950.
- Karp, Walter, "The Essex Disaster", American Heritage, April/May 1983 (34:3)
[edit] External links
- Summary of the Essex Tragedy
- Artifacts of the Essex
- Nantucket Historical Association
- Nantucket Whaling Museum
- "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World", PBS, American Experience, 2010.
- 'Moby Dick' captain's ship found — George Pollard, Jr.
Coordinates: 0°41′S 118°00′W / 0.683°S 118°W
