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George Pollard Jr. (c. 1791–1870) was the captain of the whalers Essex and Two Brothers, both of which sank. Pollard's life, including his encounter with the sperm whale that sank Essex, served as inspiration for Captain Ahab, the whale-obsessed character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. [1] [2]
Captain George Pollard Jr. was just 29 years old when the Essex went down, and he survived and returned to Nantucket to captain a second whaling ship, Two Brothers. But when that ship...
Jan 29, 2019 · Captain George Pollard Jr. had no choice but to eat his cousin. Crammed aboard a small whaleboat with some of his crew, the captain had been drifting aimlessly in the South Pacific for more...
- Lucas Reilly
- 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 ...
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.
Manned by a twenty-one-man crew, including twenty-nine-year-old Captain George Pollard and twenty-three-year-old First Mate Owen Chase, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific. The doomed voyage encountered misfortune from the start.
At the helm was Captain George Pollard, Jr., age 28, with first mate Owen Chase and second mate Mathew Joy. The 18-man crew included teenagers like Owen Coffin, the captain’s cousin, and Thomas...
