Disaster | Accident

The Horror of the Essex Whaling Ship

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Whalers always brought multiple boats on their hunting voyages-they rowed out to the whales using smaller vessels and that vantage point allowed for better aim with their harpoons.
Barely a year into its two-and-a-half-year voyage, the Essex whaling ship was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale thousands of miles from land in 1820.

The Essex whaling ship launched from Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 12, 1819, prepared for a two-and-a-half-year voyage. The crew of 20 headed to the west coast of South America to hunt. Delays prevented the Essex from reaching the whaling ground until November of 1820. Upon arrival, the men found that the whale population was depleted. It was days before the crew spotted their first whale. On one fateful day, an unusually large sperm whale, nearly 85-feet-long, approached the Essex. Immediately the crew was taken aback by its odd behavior. "I could distinctly see him smite his jaws together," one sailor remembered, "as if distracted with rage and fury." The whale rammed full-speed ahead into the ship, only to return and plow through the bow-the Essex sank so quickly few supplies could be salvaged. Thousands of miles from land, in three 20-foot boats, the surviving whalers strategized how to survive. Dehydrated and with dwindling supplies, the men began to starve. As some succumbed to hunger, their bodies were eaten by survivors. Yet, the dead didn't provide enough sustenance, so the living began sacrificing themselves for the crew's survival. Before the men were rescued, seven men were killed and eaten. Ultimately, most of the Essex whalers spent their remaining years on terra firma, and their horrific saga inspired Herman Melville's 1851 classic, Moby-Dick.

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Author Herman Melville's now-classic novel Moby-Dick, based on the Essex's horrific voyage, shed light on the dangers of the incredibly lucrative industry. Before the 1850s, whale oil lit homes across the United States.

 

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The Essex's captain Owen Chase survived the disaster only through the cannibalism of his crew. He spent his remaining years on dry land.

 

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Melville's Moby-Dick was a commercial failure that was out of print by the author's death in 1891. However, interest in the novel was revived during the 20th century and today it's remembered as one of the best works of American fiction.

 

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Despite its tiny size, the island of Nantucket was a world whaling capital. Though the trade was incredibly dangerous, locals continued to risk their lives at sea for profit-even after hearing about the Essex disaster.