Essex (whaleship)

Essex being struck by a whale on November 20, 1820 (sketched by Thomas Nickerson)
History
United States of America
Name:	Essex
Laid down:	Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States
Fate:	Struck by a sperm whale and sunk, November 20, 1820
General characteristics
Type:	Whaler
Tons burthen:	238 ​72⁄95 (bm)
Length:
Beam:
Depth:
Notes:	Four whaleboats, 20–30 feet (6.1–9.1 m): plus one spare

The Essex was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, captained by George Pollard, Jr., that was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. The twenty-man crew was stranded in the southern Pacific Ocean with very little food and water. Men began to quickly die. During the 95 days that the survivors were at sea, they ate the bodies of five crewmen who died. When that was insufficient, members of the crew drew spots to determine who would be sacrificed so that the others could live. A total of seven crew members were cannibalized by the others before the eight survivors were rescued. First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote accounts of their ordeal. Their accounts of the incident inspired Herman Melville to write his famous 1851 novel Moby-Dick.

Ship and crew

Essex was an old ship, but because so many of her voyages were profitable she gained the reputation as a "lucky" vessel. Captain George Pollard and his first mate, Owen Chase, had served together on a previous, successful trip, which 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 14.

Essex had recently been totally refitted, but at almost 88 feet (27 m) long, and measuring about 239 tons burthen, she was small for a whaleship. Essex was equipped with four whaleboats, each about 28 ft (8.5 m) in length. In addition, they kept a spare below decks. These boats were clinker built, with planks that overlapped each other rather than fitting flush together.

Final voyage

Essex left Nantucket on August 12, 1819 on what at the time was expected to be a roughly two-and-a-half-year voyage to the whaling grounds off the west coast of South America.

Damaged by squall

Two days after leaving port, the ship was hit by a squall that knocked her on her side, nearly sinking her. The topgallant sail was lost, one whaleboat damaged, and two destroyed. Captain Pollard decided to continue without replacing the two boats or repairing the damage. Essex rounded Cape Horn in January 1820 after a five-week transit, which was extremely slow. Combined with the unsettling earlier incident, the crew began to talk of ill-omens. Their concerns were dispelled when Essex began the long spring and summer hunt in the warm waters of the South Pacific Ocean, going north along the western coast of South America off Atacames, Ecuador.

Whaling grounds depleted

Finding the area nearly fished out, the crew encountered other whalers, who 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. This was an immense distance from known shores for the whalers, and the crew had heard rumors that the many islands were populated by cannibals.

Repairs and resupply at Galápagos

To restock their food supplies for the long journey, the Essex sailed for Charles Island (later renamed Floreana Island) in the Galápagos Islands group. The crew needed to fix a serious leak and initially anchored off Hood Island (now known as Española Island) on October 8. Over seven days they captured 300 Galápagos giant tortoises to supplement the ship's stores. They then sailed for Charles Island, where on October 22 they took another 60 tortoises. The tortoises weighed from 100 pounds (45 kg) to 800 pounds (360 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 were believed capable of living for a year without eating or drinking water (though in fact they slowly starved). The sailors considered the tortoises delicious and extremely nutritious and would butcher them at sea as needed.

Crew burns entire island

While hunting on Charles Island, helmsman Thomas Chappel decided to set a fire as a prank. It was the height of the dry season, and the fire burned out of control and quickly surrounded the hunters, who were forced to run through the flames to escape. By the time the men returned to Essex, almost the entire island was burning. The crew was upset about the fire, and Captain Pollard swore vengeance on whoever had set it. The next day, the island was still burning as the ship sailed for the offshore grounds. After a full day of sailing the fire was still visible on the horizon. Fearing a whipping, Chappel admitted only many days later that he had set the fire.

Many years later, Nickerson returned to Charles Island and found a black wasteland; he observed: "neither trees, shrubbery, nor grass have since appeared." It is believed the fire contributed to the extinction of the Floreana Island tortoise and the near extinction of the Floreana mockingbird, which no longer inhabit the island.

Whale smashes whaleboat

Finally reaching the promised fishing grounds thousands of miles west of South America, the whaleboats they launched found no whales day after day. Tension mounted among the officers of Essex, especially between Pollard and Chase. When they finally found a whale on November 16, Chase's boat was "dashed...literally in pieces" when the whale surfaced directly beneath it.

At eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts, and the three remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a pod of sperm whales. On the leeward side of Essex, Chase's whaleboat harpooned a whale, but its tail struck the boat and opened up a seam, forcing the crew to cut the harpoon line and put back to the ship for repairs. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate's boats each harpooned a whale and were dragged towards the horizon away from the Essex in a Nantucket sleighride.

Essex attacked by whale

Chase was repairing the damaged whaleboat on board the Essex when the crew saw an abnormally large whale (reportedly around 85 feet (26 m)) 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 the ship, rocking the ship from side to side, and then dived under it. It surfaced close on the starboard side of Essex. Its head lay alongside the bow and the tail by the stern. It was motionless and appeared to be stunned. 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 stuck thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he stopped. The whale recovered, swam several hundred yards forward of the ship, and turned to face the ship's bow.

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.

The whale crushed the bow, driving the 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.

Survivors

Map showing the location of Essex sinking marked by an X and the area travelled

The ship sank 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of South America. After spending two days salvaging what supplies they could, the 20 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 might be inhabited by cannibals and voted to make for South America. Unable to sail against the trade winds, the boats would need 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.

Food and water was rationed from the beginning, but most of the food had been soaked in seawater. This food was eaten first despite it increasing their thirst. It took around two weeks to consume the contaminated food, and by this time the survivors were rinsing their mouths with seawater and drinking their own urine. Never designed for long voyages, all the whaleboats had been roughly repaired, and leaks were a constant and serious problem. 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, and a sailor nailed a piece of wood over the hole. Within hours of the crew's beginning to die of thirst, the boats landed on uninhabited Henderson Island, within the modern-day British territory of the Pitcairn Islands. Had they landed on Pitcairn, 104 miles (167 km) to the southwest, they would have received help; it was habitable, and the survivors of HMS Bounty still lived there. On Henderson Island they found a small freshwater spring and the men gorged on birds, eggs, crabs, and peppergrass. After one week, they had largely exhausted the island's food resources and on December 26 concluded they would starve if they remained much longer. 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 Henderson and the remaining Essex crewmen resumed the journey on 27 December, hoping to reach Easter Island. Within three days they had exhausted the crabs and birds they had collected for the voyage, leaving only a small reserve of bread, salvaged from Essex. On January 4, they estimated that they had drifted too far south of Easter Island to reach it and decided to make for Más a Tierra island, 1,818 miles (2,926 km) to the east and 419 miles (674 km) west of South America. One by one, the men began to die.

Chase boat

One whaleboat, commanded by Chase, carried crew members Richard Peterson, Isaac Cole, Benjamin Lawrence, Thomas Nickerson, and Matthew Joy. Joy died on January 10. The following day, their boat became separated from the others during a squall. Peterson died on January 18 and, like Joy, was sewn into his clothes and buried at sea, as was the custom. On February 8, Cole died, but with food running out they kept his body and, after a discussion, the men resorted to cannibalism. By February 15 the three remaining men had again run out of food. On February 18, they were spotted and rescued by the British whaleship Indian, 90 days after the sinking of the Essex. Several days after the rescue, Chase's whaleboat was lost in a storm while under tow behind the Indian, although the three survivors were safely aboard the Indian.

Pollard and Hendricks boats

Obed Hendricks' boat carried crew members Joseph West, and William Bond. They exhausted their food supplies on January 14.

Pollard's boat carried Lawson Thomas, Charles Shorter, Isaiah Sheppard, Samuel Reed, Owen Coffin, Barzillai Ray, and Charles Ramsdell. They ran out of food on January 21. Thomas died on January 20, and the others decided they had no choice but to keep the body for food. Still, Shorter died on January 23, Sheppard on January 27, and Reed on January 28.

Later that day, the two boats were separated; the one led by Hendricks was never seen again. All three men are presumed to have died at sea. A whaleboat was later found washed up on Ducie Island, just east of Henderson Island, with the skeletons of three people inside, believed to be the three men.

By February 1 the food on Pollard's boat was exhausted, and their situation became dire. The men drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed for the survival of the remainder. 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 Coffin's remains were consumed by Pollard, Ramsdell, and Barzillai Ray. On February 11, Ray also died. For the remainder of their journey, Pollard and Ramsdell survived by gnawing on Coffin and Ray's bones. They were rescued when almost within sight of the South American coast by the Nantucket whaleship Dauphin, on February 23, 95 days after Essex sank. Both men by that time were so completely dissociative they did not even notice the Dauphin alongside them and became terrified when they saw their rescuers.

Rescue and reunion

After a few days in Valparaíso, Chase, Lawrence, and Nickerson were transferred to the U.S. frigate USS Constellation (1797) and placed under the care of the ship’s doctor, who oversaw their recovery. After officials were informed that three Essex survivors were stranded on Henderson Island, an Australian trader destined on a trans-Pacific passage was ordered to look for the men. Although close to death, the three men were eventually rescued.

On 17 March, Pollard and Ramsdell were reunited with Chase, Lawrence, and Nickerson. 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 to Tahiti.

Aftermath

Owen Chase in later life

Several years later, a whaleboat containing four skeletons was found beached on a Pacific island. Although it was suspected to be Obed Hendricks' missing boat, the remains were never positively identified.

Captain George Pollard, Jr. returned to sea in early 1822 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 joined a merchant vessel which was in turn also wrecked off the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands) shortly thereafter. By now Pollard was considered a "Jonah" (unlucky), and no ship owner would trust him to sail on a ship again, so he was forced to retire. He became Nantucket's night watchman. Every November 20, he would lock himself in his room and fast in memory of the men of Essex.

First Mate Owen Chase returned to Nantucket on June 11, 1821 to find he had a 14-month-old daughter he had never seen. 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 this as one of the inspirations for his novel Moby-Dick (1851). In December, Chase sailed as first mate on the whaler Florida and then as captain of Winslow for each subsequent voyage, until he had his own whaler, Charles Carrol, built. Chase remained at sea for 19 years, only returning home for short periods every two or three years, each time fathering a child. His first two wives died while he was at sea. He divorced his third wife when he found she had given birth 16 months after he had last seen her, although he subsequently brought up the child as his own. In September 1840, two months after the divorce was finalised, he married for the fourth and final time, and retired from whaling. Memories of the harrowing ordeal on the Essex haunted Chase, and he suffered terrible headaches and nightmares. Later in his life, he began hiding food in the attic of his Nantucket house on Orange Street and was eventually institutionalized.

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; the Nantucket Historical Association published it in 1984. Nickerson wrote his account late in his life, and it was lost until 1960.

In popular culture

The 1851 novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville, which has been adapted several times for film, theatre and radio.

A 2001 dramatized documentary, entitled Revenge of the Whale, was produced and broadcast on 7 September, 2001 by NBC.

In 2013, the television movie The Whale was broadcast on BBC One on 22 December, wherein an elderly Thomas Nickerson recounted the events of Essex. The elder Nickerson was played by Martin Sheen, and the younger Nickerson by Charles Furness. Owen Chase was played by Jonas Armstrong and Captain Pollard by Adam Rayner.

In 2015, the theatrical film In The Heart of the Sea was released, directed by Ron Howard. The elder Thomas Nickerson is portrayed by Brendan Gleeson and the young Nickerson is played by Tom Holland. The movie also stars Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase, and Benjamin Walker as Captain Pollard.

The Essex's story was used in the documentary Wild Pacific as an example to the difficulty of living in the open-sea.

Other ships attacked by whales

The Essex was not the only ship believed to be attacked by a whale.

• In 1835, Pusie Hall was attacked
• In 1836, Lydia and Two Generals were both attacked by whales
• In 1850, Pocahontas was sunk by a whale
• On August 20, 1851, Ann Alexander was sunk by a whale

See also

Cannibalism out of necessity

• 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.
• Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
• Donner Party
• The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
• Siege of Leningrad

External links

• Google link, of where the Essex sank