On November 20, 1820, Owen Chase was the First Mate of the Whale-Ship "Essex" when it was struck by an enraged Sperm Whale and sunk, stranding the crew in tiny whale-boats 2000 miles away from land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Of the 21 men who entered the 3 flimsy whale-boats, only 8 ultimately survived to be rescued. A harrowing journey lasting 90 days awaited these crewmen, involving storms, shark-attacks, terrible privation, and in the last resort cannibalism.On h...

On the morning of November 20, 1820, in the Pacific Ocean, an enraged sperm whale rammed the Nantucket whaler Essex. As the boat began to sink, her crew of thirty had time only to collect some bread and water before pulling away in three frail open boats. Without charts, alone on the open seas, and thousands of miles from any known land, the sailors began their terrifying journey of survival. Ninety days later, after much suffering and death by starvation, intense heat, and dehydration, on...

The gripping first-hand narrative of the whaling ship disaster that inspired Melville’s Moby-Dick and informed Nathaniel Philbrick’s monumental history, In the Heart of the SeaIn 1820, the Nantucket whaleship Essex was rammed by an angry sperm whale thousands of miles from home in the South Pacific. The Essex sank, leaving twenty crew members drifting in three small open boats for ninety days. Through drastic measures, eight men ...

The Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex is the harrowing narrative of an unfortunate vessel’s calamitous encounter with a great white whale, and the crew’s perilous fight for survival on the open sea. This Explorer’s Club edition faithfully reproduces Owen Chase’s original 1821 narrative, in which he chronicles the great whale’s attack on the ship, the Essex’s subsequent sinking, and the more than exhausting months at sea that followed, in which the fraction of the crew that survived...

On November 20, 1820, a sperm whale struck and sunk the whaling ship Essex, stranding the 21 crew members who escaped on three whale-boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2000 miles from land. Up against rough storms, vicious sharks, and desperation leading to cannibalism, only eight men survived. One was First Mate Owen Chase, who published this account of the disaster. His story served as real-life inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

Owen Chase was first mate of the whaler Essex, which a sperm whale rammed and sank on 20 November 1820. Chase wrote about the incident in Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. This book, published in 1821, would inspire Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. Chase was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the son of Phebe (Meader) and Judah Chase.

Discover the amazing true story behind the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick and the feature film Heart of the SeaA tragic yet riveting narration of life and death and man against the elements, this is an extreme account of shipwreck survival. On the morning of November 20, 1820, in the Pacific Ocean 2,000 miles from the coast of South America, an enraged sperm whale rammed the Nantucket whaleship Essex. As the boat began to sin...

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex is an account by first mate Owen Chase of the Essex, a whale ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, that was sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean near South American in 1820. Of the twenty-man crew, only eight survived the horrific ordeal; some men were stranded on an island, all remaining crew were forced to eat food tainted by seawater and drink their own urine, and finally, when members of the crew ...

“I saw the whale ahead of us, coming with twice his ordinary speed, and with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him and his coursetoward us was marked by a white foam which he made with continual violent thrashing of his tail; his head was about half out of water and in that way he came upon and again struck the ship.” An angry whale rams and destroys a whale ship in 1820. The helpless crew stranded 1500 miles from land struggles in a desperate ...

Owen Chase (October 7, 1797 – March 7, 1869) was First Mate of the whale ship Essex, that was struck and sunk by a sperm whale on October 28, 1820. Chase wrote about the incident in Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. This book, published in 1821, would inspire Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. (Summary from Wikipedia)

On November 20, 1820, Owen Chase was the First Mate of the Whale-Ship "Essex" when it was struck by an enraged Sperm Whale and sunk, stranding the crew in tiny whale-boats 2000 miles away from land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Of the 21 men who entered the 3 flimsy whale-boats, only 8 ultimately survived to be rescued. A harrowing journey lasting 90 days awaited these crewmen, involving storms, shark-attacks, terrible privation, and in the last resort cannibalism.On h...

The first mate's account of the whaleship Essex, stove and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific in 1820, and the three months in open boats that followed, in which the survivors ate their dead and drew lots to shoot one of the living. Melville read this and wrote Moby-Dick. This edition includes a gallery of 60 plates of painting from 1600 to 1899, among them works by Winslow Homer, Ivan Aivazovsky and J. M. W. Turner.