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Sep 12, 2023 · The ship was captained by George Pollard, Jr., with 21-year-old Owen Chase at his right hand as first mate. Matthew Joy served as the second mate. While some crew members had years of experience, 14-year-old Thomas Nickerson and 16-year-old Owen Coffin, the captain’s first cousin, were new to life at sea, though growing up in Nantucket made ...
- The Whaleship Essex Sets Sail on Its Final Voyage
- A Sperm Whale Strikes
- The Desperate Crew Resorts to Cannibalism
- The Men Are Saved, 90 Days Later
- The Tale Inspires Herman Melville to Write Moby-Dick
As America marched through the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, whale products became invaluable commodities. Whale blubber was used to make candles and oil, which heated lamps and lubricated machinery. Whale bone was also harvested for the ribs in women’s corsets, umbrellas, and petticoats. As such, whaling was a booming American industr...
Whaling was no easy venture. Whalers would set off from the main ship in teams aboard smaller boats, from which they would try to harpoon a whale and stab it to death with a lance. At least the crew aboard the Essexwere on the main ship when the sperm whale attacked them. Owen Chase, the first mate on the Essex, first saw the whale. At 85 feet long...
Pollard’s crew of 20 spread across three boats. And now, they faced a terrible choice. The captain suggested they sail to the closest land, which was the Marquesas Islands more than 1,000 miles away. But the crew refused, claiming the islands were filled with cannibals. “We feared,” Pollard later recalled, “that we should be devoured by cannibals i...
It wasn’t long before the three boats lost each other. One vanished entirely, then Pollard lost sight of Chase’s boat. Nine weeks had passed on the open sea and one of the four men left alive on Pollard’s ship suggested drawing lots and eating the loser. The short straw went to Owen Coffin– Pollard’s 18-year-old cousin. “My lad, my lad!” Pollard cr...
Back in Nantucket, Captain Pollard’s family rejected him – they couldn’t forgive their kinsman for eating his own cousin. He didn’t find any comfort out at sea either, as he was considered a “Jonah,” or an unlucky captain. So in his 30s, Pollard retired to Nantucket, where he reportedly locked himself in a room and fasted on the anniversary of the ...
Dec 8, 2021 · Captain Pollard departed on a new voyage only eight months after his return to Nantucket. The two ships he captained following the Essex also sank, and Pollard developed a reputation for bad luck. Although public opinion of the Essex survivors was generally positive, Pollard did face resentment at home for cannibalizing his own cousin. Sullied ...
- Carolyn Cox
Essex. (whaleship) 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 ...
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.
Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, and Thomas Nickerson were rescued February 18 by the brig Indian, Captain William Crozier of London. On February 23 Captain Pollard and Charles Ramsdell were rescued by the Nantucket ship Dauphin, Captain Zimri Coffin. Word of the three men left on the island was relayed to Captain Thomas Raine of the Surry ...
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There were 21 men on board—including the first-time captain, George Pollard, Jr.—and the trip was expected to last up to three years. On August 14, however, the voyage nearly ended when the ship was briefly knocked onto its side by a squall and almost sunk.
