The Wreck of the Whaleship "Essex": A First-hand Account of One of History's Most Extraordinary Maritime Disasters

by OwenChase (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.40

  The morning of 20 November 1820 was a doomed one for the whaleship ESSEX. More than 1,000 miles from land in the South Pacific, the ship was sunk, rammed by a sperm whale. Twenty sailors managed to collect some bread and water before pulling away in three frail boats, but only eight survived what was to follow: three months of despair and debilitating exhaustion at sea. Owen Chase was one of those survivors. After returning to Nantucket, his journal of the ESSEX's perilous voyage was published. But Chase only lived to tell the tale because he had eaten his dead ship-mates...

• New

  Paperback
  1999

  $18.12

  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, only eight men survived to reach land. One of them was Owen Chase, first mate of the ill-fated ship, whose account of the long and perilous journey has become a classic of endurance and human courage. The elements of his tale inspired Herman Melville (who was born the year the Essex sank) to write the classic Moby Dick. A gallant saga of the sea, this riveting narration of life and death, of man against the deep, will enthrall readers.