Call me Ishamel. So starts what would become one of the great stories of classic literature, a keystone of the Western canon, Moby Dick. The story of a man on a quest for revenge against a whale, sounds ridiculous, however few are aware that Melville's inspiration came from the real life story of the whaling ship Essex and it's seriously unlucky captain, George Pollard.
In the 1820s you probably couldn't have made a worse decision than to be part of the crew on the whaling ship Essex. First, because we now know that whaling is less than a good industry and, second, because there was nothing that didn't happen to this ship and it's poor crew of around 20 men.
The ship, itself was considered smallish for a whaling ship, though it had four other boats on board. Anyone that knows anything about the nineteenth century whaling industry (if you do, email me, I want to know how this becomes your subject of choice) will tell you that the large ship is not what was typically used to fish the whales. The large ship was what everyone lived on and housed the smaller ships that small groups of men, usually five or six, would then depart on to look for whales. These boats were typically 20-30 feet.
Setting sail from Nantucket, Mass on August 12, 1819, the Essex and her crew, captained by 29 year old George Pollard, were expecting to be at sea for about two and a half years. Two days into the voyage the ship hit a squall that nearly sank it, however, the crew was able to right the ship once again and set sail, reaching Cape Horn on January 18, 1820. The crew spent some time in South American waters but found them nearly fished out; they made the decision to sail to the South Pacific. They stopped at the Galapagos Islands before heading out where two crew members (unknown exactly which ones) started a fire as a prank. Funny. This fire quickly spread out of control and led to the extinction of two species of tortoise and one species of bird. Good job guys.
Species extinction now dispensed with, the crew made the South Pacific by November. On the sixteenth of November, one of the boats being run by first mate Owen Chase was hit by a whale's tail fluke and destroyed. Afterward all seemed to be running smoothly, by comparison, until November 20. On that day Chase spotted a sperm whale about 85 feet long by eyewitness accounts, and about 100 feet from the ship. He alerted Pollard and those aboard, meaning to attempt to kill and capture the whale.
However, the whale had other ideas. Much to the surprise of the captain and crew, the whale charged the ship. I have no idea how this is even possible, again, if there's any reader out there with intimate knowledge of nineteenth century whaling or whale anatomy and behavior, come find me on Facebook (facebook.com/unemployedinhistory). I'm curious. Anyway, the whale charged the ship not once, but twice, destroying the ship.
To understand how this happens, lets take a second to talk about sperm. Whales. Sperm whales are typically very docile and pose no threat to humans. In fact, the attack on the Essex is really the only time a sperm whale has been known to attack any vessel. These whales are the largest toothed whales and tend to spend most of their time in the deepest parts of the ocean, meaning they are rarely seen at the surface and, thus, ellude fishermen and oceanic researchers alike. The average size for a male is around 50 feet, so if this whale was, in fact, 85 feet like the crew states, it would be considered massive.
Once the ship was destroyed the twenty man crew split into three of the smaller boats. They plundered the ship for as many provisions as they could possibly find and set out into the open ocean, hoping to catch tides to the coast of South America. Now, if you're cynical and moderately good at geography like myself you're thinking: You dumb shits are in the South Pacific where there's a shit ton of glorified ocean rocks people consider islands, why not go there? Well, the answer is very nineteenth century fisherman tale: Because cannibals. There's some debate over whether or not Pollard actually believed this, but a majority of the crew were convinced that the only people that inhabited the islands of the South Pacific were cannibals. This would prove to be a rather ironic decision. So, with enough provisions on board the three smaller boats for 56 days at sea, assuming every man ate about half as much as they should, the twenty men set out for South America, a journey that had previously taken them about ten months in a full sized sailing ship. Good luck guys.
But luck was not on their side. About a month after they left the Essex they hit one of those glorified ocean rocks in the South Pacific (I can say that, because I spent a month on one once). They thought they were at Ducie Island and they went ashore finding the island completely uninhabited. There was no way the small island could support twenty men for an indefinite length of time-- the men would have to leave to face the open ocean yet again. However, three men basically said "fuck that" and decided to risk the island life, while the remaining seventeen set out in the three boats one day after Christmas.
Less than a month at sea, the first of the men, second mate Matthew Joy, died. Just one day later the boat headed by first mate Owen Chase was separated from the other two by yet another squall. Thus, here the story diverges. Richard Peterson died on Owen's boat about a week later and less than three weeks after that Issac Cole also died, leaving three men aboard with no rations. It was at this point that the survivors made a horrifying decision-- they ate Isaac. His body lasted as a food source for about two weeks. Three days after they ate the last of Isaac they were rescued by the British ship Indian, having spent around 90 days on the open ocean.
While those aboard Owen's ship were cannibalizing each other, the men in the other two boats were, well, doing the same thing. The two boats were completely out of food ten days after they were separated from Owen's boat. When Lawson Thomas died around the same time, he was cannibalized by the remaining crew, as were three other men who died in succession. By January 28, 1821, the boat captained by Obed Hendricks, containing also Joe West and William Bond disappeared from Pollard's sight, never to be seen again. It is believed that all were lost at sea.
Pollard's boat ran out of food, yet again, four days later. At this point the remaining four men took a drastic step-- they drew straws to see who would be killed as a food source. Pollard's cousin, seventeen year old Owen Coffin, drew the shortest straw and was shot and eaten by his crewmates over the protestations of Pollard (who ate him anyway, so, yeah). An additional man, Brazillai Ray met the same fate ten days later, though it is unclear if he died of natural causes or was killed by the crew. Pollard maintains, in his memoir, that he died of disease or some other natural fate those that are shipwrecked tend to meet, however, it is telling that the men were drawing lots for food sources, that we know from Owen's account that one adult human body will feed two people for around ten days, and that Ray died about ten days after Coffin did. But, in reality, it doesn't matter. Pollard and the last remaining survivor of the boat, Charles Ramsdell, were rescued on February 23, 1821 by the whaling ship Dauphin after spending 95 days at sea. Some say that Ramsdell and Pollard were found in the boat sucking on the bones of the dead, refusing to give up the bones when taken aboard.
But what of the three men left on the glorified ocean rock? All were rescued in April of that year, found to actually be on Henderson Island having survived on shellfish and island foliage.
Oddly, from the historical record it appears that only Seth Weeks, one of the three men on Henderson Island, retired immediately from sailing. The rest would go on to various sailing careers for some length of time. Pollard himself would captain the Two Brothers out of Nantucket. However, it was wrecked on a coral reef shortly after leaving Nantucket. Pollard at this point was considered bad luck and never sailed again, instead he became a nightwatchmen before dying comfortably.
Owen Chase, and various other men that were survived, wrote a memoir The Narrative Of The Most Extra Ordinary and Distressing Ship Wreck Of The Whaleship Essex. A copy of this was given to Herman Melville by Chase's son sometime in the 1830s and Melville was inspired. Moby Dick initially met with derision from critics but would grow to be a classic.
For further info there's a great write up by Smithsonian that can be found here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/
PBS also does a great write up, because they're PBS and that's what they do: http://www.pbs.org/odyssey/class/essex.html
For more info on Sperm whales check out oceanicresearch.org, or find someone that has decided their research subject of choice is nineteenth century whaling. Seriously if you know someone that has chosen that, email me.
SparkNotes for Moby Dick are available at their website, and more info on Melville and his great white whale are available at melville.org
Owen Chase's book can be found online for free via Google. Chase eventually went insane before his life ended, some say as a result of the canniblism he partook in. There's an article called "Why Cannibalism is Bad For You" (seriously) that outlines the effects of cannibalism on humans and can be found at healthmap.org.
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