Sketch of the Whaleship Essex being struck by a whale 20 November 1820. Sketched by Thomas Nickerson.

Crew of the Essex Whaleship Essex now found in the Nantucket Historical Association The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Sketch of the Whaleship Essex being struck by a whale. ...

Captain George Pollard Jr. George Pollard, Jr. ... First Mate Owen Chase Owen Chase (1798-1869) First Mate of the whale ship Essex, that was struck and sunk by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820. ... Second Mate Matthew Joy Boatsteerers Benjamin Lawrence • Obed Hendricks Thomas Chappel Steward William Bond Sailors Owen Coffin • Isaac Cole • Henry De Witt Richard Patterson • Charles Ramsdell Barzillai Ray • Samual Reed • Isaiah Sheppard Charles Shorter • Lawson Thomas Seth Weeks • Joseph West William Wright Richard Patterson, Blue Minotaur 1996, Copyright the artist, Courtesy Timothy Taylor Gallery, London // Biography 1963 Born in Leatherhead, Surrey, England 1982-83 Watford College of Art and Design Foundation Course 1983-86 Goldsmiths College B.A. Hons (Fine Art) Solo Exhibitions Forthcoming Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, (2005) 2002 James Cohan... Cabin Boy Thomas Nickerson Sketch of the Whaleship Essex being struck by a whale. ...

The whaling ship Essex left Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage in the whaling grounds of the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. She was 87 feet long, and measured 238 tons. She was captained by a 28 year old man named George Pollard Jr.. Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, formed of glacial moraine. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Pacific redirects here. ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 Sperm Whale range (in blue) The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of all toothed whales and is the largest toothed animal alive, measuring up to 18 metres (60 ft) long. ... Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo capacity of a ship. ... George Pollard, Jr. ...

On November 20, 1820, the Essex was struck and pushed multiple times by a sperm whale. The ship sank 2,000 miles (3,700 km) off South America. The twenty sailors set out in three small whaleboats, with wholly inadequate supplies of food and water, and landed on uninhabited Henderson Island, within the modern-day British territory of the Pitcairn Islands. is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Henderson Island is an uninhabited uplifted coral island in the south Pacific Ocean, annexed to the Pitcairn Islands colony in 1902. ...

On Henderson island, the men gorged on birds, fish, and vegetation. They found a small freshwater spring. However, after one week, they had exhausted the island's natural resources, and concluded the island would not sustain them any longer. Most of the Essex crewmen got back into their whaleboats. Three men, however, opted to stay behind on Henderson.

Excessive sodium in the sailors’ diets and malnutrition led to diarrhea, blackouts, enfeeblement, boils, edema, and magnesium deficiency which caused bizarre and violent behavior. As conditions worsened, the sailors resorted to drinking their own urine and stealing and mismanaging their food. All were smokers and suffered severe tobacco withdrawl once their supply ran out. Percentage of population affected by malnutrition by country, according to United Nations statistics. ... This page is about the condition called edema. ... Withdrawal refers to the characteristic signs and symptoms that appear when a drug that causes physical dependence is regularly used for a long time and then suddenly discontinued or decreased in dosage. ...

One by one, the men of the Essex died. The first were sewn in their clothes and buried at sea, as was the custom. However, with food running out, the men resorted to cannibalism in order to survive, consuming the corpses of their dead shipmates. Towards the end of the ordeal, the situation in Captain Pollard's boat became quite critical. The men drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed for the survival of the crew. A young man named Owen Coffin, Captain Pollard's young cousin, whom he had sworn to protect, drew the black spot. Lots were drawn again to determine who would be Coffin's executioner. His young friend, Charles Ramsdell, drew the black spot. Ramsdell shot Coffin, and his remains were consumed by Pollard, Barzillai Ray, and Charles Ramsdell. Some time later, Ray also died. For the remainder of their journey, Pollard and Ramsdell survived by gnawing on the bones of Coffin and Ray. They were rescued by the Nantucket Whaleship Dauphin 95 days after the Essex sank. Cannibal redirects here. ...

First mate Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, and young Thomas Nickerson survived through similarly desperate measures, and were rescued by the British Merchantman Brig Indian 93 days after the Essex sank. Pollard, Chase, Ramsdell, Lawrence, and Nickerson were reunited in the port city of Valparaiso, where they informed officials there of their three shipmates stranded on Henderson Island. A ship destined on a trans - pacific passage was ordered to look for the men on Henderson. Those three men were eventually rescued, although they were nearly dead.

By the time the last of the eight survivors were rescued on 5 April 1821, seven sailors had been eaten. is the 95th day of the year (96th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1821 (MDCCCXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

First Mate Owen Chase wrote an account of the disaster, the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex; this was used by Herman Melville as one of the inspirations for his novel Moby-Dick, which really only tells the first part of this tragic Whaleship Essex story. Disambiguation: The rank First Mate also refers to a executive officer The First Mate portrayed in Raiders of the Lost Ark The First Mate (????) is known as Simone Katangas closest companion in the Katanga Anthologies. ... Owen Chase (1798-1869) First Mate of the whale ship Essex, that was struck and sunk by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820. ... Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. ... Moby-Dick book cover Moby-Dick - the official title of the first edition - is a novel by Herman Melville. ...

Memories of the harrowing ordeal haunted Owen Chase. He suffered terrible headaches and nightmares. Later in his life, Chase began hiding food in the attic of his Nantucket house on Orange Street (Philbrick, p. 244). Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, formed of glacial moraine. ...

The cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, wrote another account titled The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats which was not published until 1984 by the Nantucket Historical Association. Nickerson wrote his account late in his life and it was lost until 1960. It was not until 1980 that it came into the hands of Nantucket whaling expert Edouard Stackpole that its importance was realized. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a National Book Award winning work of maritime history by Nathaniel Philbrick. It tells the story of the Essex including the point of view of Nickerson in addition to that of Chase. Sketch of the Whaleship Essex being struck by a whale. ... Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, formed of glacial moraine. ... The crew of the oceanographic research vessel Princesse Alice, of Albert Grimaldi (later Prince Albert I of Monaco) pose while flensing a catch. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a winner of the National Book Award for his work of maritime history In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. ...

Today, staff members of the Nantucket Historical Association retell the story of this ill-fated ship almost daily, in a presentation called "the Essex Gam."

See also

• Ann Alexander (ship) sunk by a whale August 20, 1851
• The Custom of the Sea
• The Raft of the Medusa

The Ann Alexander was a ship from New Bedford that was rammed by a wounded sperm whale on August 20, 1851 near the Galapagos Islands. ... is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Custom of the Sea was a maritime custom in which stranded survivors drew lots to see who would be killed and eaten so that some of the men might live. ... The Raft of the Medusa is the name applied to an infamous catastrophic shipwreck of the French ship Medusa (original French name: La Méduse) in 1816 in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa. ...

References

• Philbrick, Nathaniel (2001). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-100182-8. OCLC 46949818. 
• Chase, Owen (1821). Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. New York: W. B. Gilley. OCLC 12217894. 
• Nickerson, Thomas [1876] (1984). The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats. Nantucket: Nantucket Historical Society. OCLC 11613950. 

Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a winner of the National Book Award for his work of maritime history In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. ... The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded in 1967 and originally named the Ohio College Library Center. ... Owen Chase (1798-1869) First Mate of the whale ship Essex, that was struck and sunk by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820. ... The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded in 1967 and originally named the Ohio College Library Center. ... Sketch of the Whaleship Essex being struck by a whale. ... The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded in 1967 and originally named the Ohio College Library Center. ...

External links

• Summary of the Essex Tragedy
• Artifacts of the Essex
• In the Heart of the Sea:The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (ISBN 0-670-89157-6)
• Article on the Essex published in H2G2
• Nantucket Historical Association