Essex (whaleship)
A whale striking Essex on November 20, 1820, depicted in a sketch by Thomas Nickerson
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Essex |
Laid down | Amesbury, Massachusetts,[1] U.S. |
Launched | 1799[1] |
Fate | Attacked and sunk by a sperm whale, November 20, 1820 |
General characteristics [2] | |
Type | Whaler |
Tons burthen | 238 72⁄95 (bm) |
Length | 87 ft 7 in (26.7 m) |
Beam | 24 ft 0 in (7.3 m) |
Depth | 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m) |
Notes | Four whaleboats, 20–30 feet (6.1–9.1 m), plus one spare |
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. About 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) from the coast of South America, the 20-man crew was forced to make for land in three whaleboats with what food and water they could salvage from the wreck.
After a month at sea the crew landed on the uninhabited Henderson Island. Three men elected to stay on the island, from which they were rescued in April 1821, while the remaining seventeen set off again for the coast of South America. The men suffered severe dehydration, starvation and exposure on the open ocean, and the survivors eventually resorted to cannibalism. By the time they were rescued in February 1821, three months after the sinking of Essex, only five of the seventeen were alive.
First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson later wrote accounts of the ordeal. The tragedy attracted international attention, and inspired Herman Melville to write his famous 1851 novel Moby-Dick.
Ship and crew
When Essex departed from
Essex set sail with a crew of twenty-one men. Twelve, including the officers and two of the three boatsteerers, were born or raised in Nantucket while nine were off-islanders, of whom seven were black. The captain, 29-year-old
Captain | George Pollard | 29 | White | Born on Nantucket | Survived |
First mate | Owen Chase | 21 | White | Born on Nantucket | Survived |
Second mate | Matthew Joy | 26 | White | Born on Nantucket | Died |
Boatsteerer | Obed Hendricks | 20 | White | Born on Nantucket | Presumed dead |
Boatsteerer | Benjamin Lawrence | 20 | White | Born on Nantucket | Survived |
Boatsteerer | Thomas Chappel | Age unknown | White | Born England | Survived Henderson Island |
Steward | William Bond | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Presumed dead |
Cabin boy | Thomas Nickerson | 14 | White | Grew up on Nantucket | Survived |
Seaman | Owen Coffin | 16 | White | Born on Nantucket | Shot and eaten |
Seaman | Isaac Cole | Age unknown | White | Born Rochester, Massachusetts | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Henry DeWitt | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Jumped ship |
Seaman | Richard Peterson | About 60 | Black | Born New York State | Died |
Seaman | Charles Ramsdell | 15 | White | Born on Nantucket | Survived |
Seaman | Barzillai Ray | 17 | White | Born on Nantucket | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Samuel Reed | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Isaiah Sheppard | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Charles Shorter | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Lawson Thomas | Age unknown | Black | Birthplace unknown | Died and eaten |
Seaman | Seth Weeks | Age 16 | White | Born Barnstable, Massachusetts | Survived Henderson Island |
Seaman | Joseph West | Age unknown | White | Birthplace unknown | Presumed dead |
Seaman | William Wright | 18 | White | Born Barnstable, Massachusetts | Survived Henderson Island |
Final voyage
Round Cape Horn
Essex departed from Nantucket on August 12, 1819, on what was expected to be a roughly two-and-a-half-year voyage to the whaling grounds off the west coast of South America. The route towards Cape Horn was an indirect one dictated by the prevailing winds of the Atlantic Ocean. First the ship would sail with the westerlies towards Europe and Africa, and then back towards South America with the northeast trade winds. There were scheduled stops at the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, where the ship could be stocked with provisions more cheaply than at Nantucket.[7]
A few days into the voyage, Essex was hit by a sudden squall in the Gulf Stream. She was knocked on her beam-ends and nearly sank; damages included the loss of her topgallant sail and two whaleboats, with an additional whaleboat sustaining minor damage. Pollard's initial thought was to return to Nantucket for repairs, but he accepted the arguments of Chase and Joy, the first and second mates, who wished to continue to the Azores. At the Cape Verde Islands the crew were able to purchase a whaleboat.[8] Later, as Essex sailed down the east coast of South America, three months into the voyage, the first whale was killed.[9]
In the face of strong winds from the west, Essex took over a month to round Cape Horn into the whaling grounds of the South Pacific. In January 1820 she met up with other whalers from Nantucket at St Mary's Island off the west coast of Chile.[10]
Whaling grounds depleted
After several months searching for whales off the coast of Chile, Essex sailed north and met with more success off the coast of Peru. Within two months they had killed enough whales to produce 450 barrels of oil.[11] In May 1820, Essex hailed Aurora, another whaler from Nantucket, whose captain told them that another whaling ground, known as the "offshore ground", had been discovered more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) off the Peruvian coast. Pollard decided that, after making provisioning stops, he would set sail for these new grounds, rather than stay in the depleted coastal grounds.[12]
In September 1820, Essex sailed to the Peruvian port town of Atacames (now part of Ecuador). It was here that Henry DeWitt jumped ship, leaving Essex with a crew of only twenty. When whales were spotted the three whaleboats, each with an officer, a boatsteerer and four crew members, would go in pursuit. Without DeWitt, there would be only two crew members left aboard Essex, not enough to safely handle a ship of Essex's size and type.[13]
Repairs and resupply at the Galápagos Islands
To restock their food supplies for the long journey, Essex sailed for Charles Island (later renamed Floreana Island) in the Galápagos Islands. The crew needed to fix a serious leak and initially anchored off Hood Island (now known as Española Island) on October 8, 1820. During a week at anchor, they captured 300 Galápagos giant tortoises to supplement the ship's food stores. They then sailed for Charles Island, where on October 22 they took another sixty tortoises. The tortoises weighed between 100 and 800 pounds (45 and 363 kg) each. The sailors captured them alive and allowed some of them to roam the ship at will; the rest they kept in the hold. They believed the tortoises were capable of living for a year without eating or drinking water (though in fact the tortoises slowly starved).[14][15]
While hunting on Charles Island, Chappel lit a fire as a prank. It was the height of the dry season, and the fire quickly burned out of control, surrounding the hunters and forcing them to run through the flames to escape. By the time the men returned to Essex, almost the entire island was burning and Pollard swore vengeance on whoever had set it. The next day, the island was still burning as the ship sailed for the offshore grounds; even after a full day of sailing, the fire was still visible on the horizon. Chappel would only admit that he had set the fire much later after Essex sank.[16] Many years later, Nickerson returned to Charles Island and found a blackened wasteland; he observed "neither trees, shrubbery, nor grass have since appeared".[17]
Whale attack
When Essex reached the hunting grounds about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) west of the Galápagos Islands, whales still proved elusive. When they finally found a whale on November 16, 1820, it surfaced directly beneath Chase's boat and, although no-one was injured, the boat required repairs.[18]
At eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts, and the three remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a
Chase was repairing the damaged whaleboat on board Essex when the crew sighted an unusually large sperm whale bull (reportedly around 85 feet (26 m) in length) acting strangely. It lay motionless on the surface facing the ship and then began to swim towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. The whale rammed Essex, rocking her from side to side, and then dove under her, surfacing close on the ship's
I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), 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[21]
The whale crushed the bow, driving the vessel backwards, and then finally disengaged its head from the shattered
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[23]
The cause of the whale's aggression is not known. In In the Heart of the Sea, author Nathaniel Philbrick speculated that it may have first struck the boat accidentally or have had its curiosity aroused by the sound of a hammer as the damaged whaleboat was being repaired. The frequency and sound of the nailing may have sounded similar to those made by bull sperm whales to communicate and echolocate.[24]
Survivors
Abandoning the wreck
The crew spent the next two days salvaging what supplies remained from the waterlogged wreck of Essex. Three whaleboats were rigged with makeshift masts and sails were taken from Essex, and boards were added to heighten the gunwales and prevent large waves from spilling over the sides.[25] Inside Pollard's sea chest, which Bond's quick thinking had managed to save, were two sets of navigational equipment and two copies of maritime charts. These were split between Pollard's and Chase's boats; Joy's boat was left without any means of navigating except to keep within sight of the other boats.[26]
Essex sank approximately 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of South America. The officers debated which route to take towards land. Pollard favoured sailing west with the prevailing winds and current. The nearest islands to the west were Marquesas Islands, about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) away, but Pollard was afraid they would encounter cannibals there and concluded that it would be better to sail to the Society Islands, about 2,000 miles (3,200 km). Chase and Joy disagreed, fearing that the Society islanders might be cannibals, and suggested sailing south for about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) and then picking up a band of variable winds to take them to the coast of Chile or Peru, all the time hoping to come across another whaleship. In fact, both the Marquesas and Society Islands would have been safe destinations, as the inhabitants were at that time friendly towards mariners, but Pollard accepted the suggestion of Chase and Joy.[27]
Herman Melville later speculated that the crew would all have survived had they followed Pollard's recommendation and sailed to the Society Islands, writing: "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might, in all human probability, have been avoided had they immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti, from which they were not very distant at the time. But they dreaded cannibals".[28]
The crew were divided between the three boats, under the command of Pollard, Chase and Joy, and on November 22, 1820, set off for land.[29] Never designed for long voyages, all the whaleboats had been very roughly repaired, and leaks were a constant and serious problem during the voyage. After losing a timber, the crew of one boat had to lean to one side to raise the other side out of the water until another boat was able to draw close, allowing a sailor to nail a piece of wood over the hole. Storms and rough seas frequently plagued the tiny whaleboats, and the men who were not occupied with steering and trimming the sails spent most of their time bailing water from the bilge.[30]
Food and water were rationed from the beginning, with the men first consuming the bread that had been soaked in seawater, even though it increased their thirst. After ten days of eating only meagre rations of bread, they slaughtered the first of the giant tortoises that had been salvaged from the wreck and achieved a small respite from hunger.[31]
Landfall
On December 20, exactly one month after the whale attack, with the men suffering from
On Henderson Island, Essex's crew found food in the form of birds, eggs, crabs, fish and peppergrass but water proved more difficult to find, although they eventually came across a freshwater spring below the tideline. After just one week, they had largely exhausted the island's food resources. On December 26, they concluded they would starve if they remained much longer. As most of the crew prepared to set sail in the whaleboats once again, three men – William Wright, Seth Weeks and Thomas Chappel, the only white members of the crew who were not natives of Nantucket – opted to stay behind on the island. Pollard promised, if he made it back to South America, to see that they were rescued.[33] Pollard was true to his word, and the three men on Henderson Island were rescued by Surry, an Australian trading vessel, in April 1821.[34]
Separation and cannibalism
The remaining Essex crewmen, now numbering seventeen in three boats, resumed their journey on December 27 with the intention of reaching Easter Island.[35] On January 4, 1821, they estimated that they had drifted too far south of Easter Island and decided to make for Más Afuera Island off the coast of Chile. On the same day they exhausted their supply of fish and birds from Henderson Island and were back on daily rations of a cup of water and three ounces of bread.[36]
On January 10, Joy, who had been in poor health even before Essex left Nantucket, died; his body was consigned to the sea. Pollard's boatsteerer, Obed Hendricks, took over the command of Joy's boat.[37] The following day, Chase's boat became separated from the others during a squall.[38] On January 20, Richard Peterson died on Chase's boat and his body too was buried at sea.[39]
On the same day, more than 100 miles (160 km) to the north, Lawson Thomas died on Hendricks' boat. By this time the provisions on Pollard's and Hendricks' boats had almost run out, and they decided to eat the body. Two days later Charles Shorter died and was eaten.[40] Within a few days Isaiah Sheppard and Samuel Reed suffered a similar fate.[41] On the night of January 29, the boats of Pollard and Hendricks became separated. Hendricks' boat lacked any navigational equipment and he and his two remaining crew members, William Bond and Joseph West, were never seen again. Months later a whaleboat with four skeletons in it was found washed up on Ducie Island, and it was suggested that the boat was Hendricks'.[42]
By February 6, the crew of Pollard's boat were again starving. It was decided to draw lots, and Owen Coffin was shot and eaten.
Rescue and reunion
On the morning of February 18, Lawrence, who was steering Chase's boat, spotted a sail a few miles distant. They managed to catch up with the vessel, which turned out to be the British ship Indian. Too weak to climb aboard the ship, Chase, Lawrence and Nickerson had to be lifted from their boat and carried to the captain's cabin. Later that day they came within sight of Más Afuera, the island towards which Chase had, with remarkable accuracy, been navigating. A few days later Indian sailed into the port of Valparaíso. The whaleboat, which was being towed behind Indian, was lost in a gale.[47]
On 23 February, ninety-three days after the sinking of Essex, Pollard and Ramsdell were spotted by the Nantucket whaleship Dauphin near St Mary's Island off the coast of Chile, where Essex had stopped over a year before. Pollard and Ramsdell were close to starvation, sucking on the bones of their dead shipmates and drifting in and out of consciousness when they were taken aboard Dauphin.[48] They were then transferred to another Nantucket whaleship, Two Brothers, which was sailing for Valparaíso. On March 17 they reached the port and were reunited with Chase, Lawrence and Nickerson, who had been recovering on the frigate USS Constellation under the care of the ship's surgeon. All the whaleboat survivors were Nantucketers.[49] On March 23, Chase, Lawrence, Nickerson and Ramsdell set off for Nantucket in the whaleship Eagle. Pollard was still too weak to make the journey and followed them aboard Two Brothers in May.[50]
The commander of Constellation arranged the rescue of the three seamen who had stayed on what they thought was Ducie Island (actually Henderson Island). He asked the captain of an Australian trading vessel Surry, which was returning to Australia, to stop at Ducie Island and pick up the survivors. When they found Ducie Island uninhabited, the captain of Surry wondered if the officers of Essex had confused Ducie and Henderson Islands and decided to sail on to Henderson Island, where they found Chappel, Weeks and Wright on April 9.[34]
Aftermath
Pollard returned to sea in early 1822 to captain Two Brothers. She was wrecked on the
Chase returned to Nantucket on June 11, 1821, to find he had a 14-month-old daughter he had never met. Four months later he had completed an account of the disaster, the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex; Herman Melville used it as one of the inspirations for his 1851 novel
Lawrence captained the whaleships Dromo and Huron before retiring and buying a small farm at Siasconset on Nantucket.[54] He died on Nantucket on March 28, 1879, aged 80.[55]
Ramsdell captained the whaleship General Jackson.[54] He died on Nantucket on July 8, 1866, aged 62.[56]
Nickerson became a captain in the merchant service and moved to
The three men, Chappel, Weeks and Wright, who had been rescued from Henderson Island continued to work as crew members of their rescue ship Surry before making their way back to England and the United States. Chappel retired from sailing and became a missionary; he died of plague fever in Timor. Wright was lost at sea in a hurricane in the West Indies. Weeks retired to Cape Cod, where he died on September 12, 1887, having outlived the rest of the Essex survivors.[54][59]
Cultural works
As well as inspiring much of American author Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick, the story of the Essex tragedy has been dramatized in film, television, and music:
- The dramatized documentary Revenge of the Whale (2001), was produced and broadcast on September 7, 2001, by NBC.[60]
- The television movie The Whale (2013) was broadcast on BBC One on December 22, wherein an elderly Thomas Nickerson (played by Martin Sheen) recounted the events of Essex. Charles Furness played the younger Nickerson, Jonas Armstrong played Owen Chase, and Adam Rayner played Captain Pollard.[61]
- The 2015 film Tom Holland portrayed the elder and younger Nickerson, respectively.[62]
See also
- Custom of the sea, a set of customs practiced by the officers and crew of ships and boats in the open sea, which includes a discussion of cannibalism out of necessity
- R v Dudley and Stephens (1884), a case involving cannibalism out of necessity
- French frigate Méduse
General
References
- ^ a b "Essex (whaler)". National Maritime Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ^ a b Heffernan 1990, pp. 9–10
- ^ a b "Stove by a Whale: 20 Men, 3 Boats, 96 Days". Nantucket Historical Association. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 18–19
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 241, citing original 1799 specifications.
- ^ Chase 1965, p. 19
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 37
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 40–45
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 48
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 63
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 64
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 67
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 67–69
- ^ Chase 1821, p. 26
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 74
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 74–75
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 75
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 79
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 79–80
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 80–82
- ^ Chase 1821, p. 29
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 83–84
- ^ Chase 1821, p. 34
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 86–87, 255–56
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 90–93
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 105
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 95–98
- ^ Gussow, Mel (1 August 2000). "Resurrecting The Tale That Inspired and Sank Melville". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 103
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 111–113
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 118
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 140
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 145–147
- ^ a b Philbrick 2001, pp. 193–194
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 151
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 152
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 154
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 155
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 163
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 164–167
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 170
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 173–174, 196
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 176
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 182
- ^ Philbrick 2001, p. 181
- ^ Chase 1821, p. 118
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 185–187
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 187–189
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 190–192
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 193
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 207–212
- ^ "LDS family record". familysearch.org.
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 212–216
- ^ a b c d Philbrick 2001, p. 217
- ^ "LDS Family Search". familysearch.org.
- ^ "LDS Family Search". familysearch.org.
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. 228–229
- ^ Philbrick 2001, pp. xiii–xiv
- ^ "LDS family search". familysearch.org.
- IMDb
- ^ "The Whale". BBC. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- IMDb
Sources
- OCLC 12217894. Archived from the original on 2014-11-30. republished in 1965 as Chase, Owen (1965). The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
- Heffernan, Thomas Farel (1990) [1981]. Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex. Middletown, CT: ISBN 0819562440.
- OCLC 46949818.
Further reading
- Karp, Walter (April 1983). "The Essex Disaster". American Heritage. 34: 3.
- OCLC 11613950.