A Whale Sank Their Ship. Then It Got Worse

The Essex whale attack was only the beginning. After a sperm whale sank their ship, 20 men were left in three small boats in the Pacific. In 1820, the Nantucket whaleship Essex was struck and destroyed by a massive sperm whale thousands of miles from South America. But the attack itself lasted only minutes. The survival ordeal that followed lasted nearly three months. This true maritime survival story follows Captain George Pollard Jr., Owen Chase, Thomas Nickerson, and the crew of the Essex as they abandon their sinking ship, make a fatal route decision, reach Henderson Island, and face one of the most haunting disasters in whaling history. The Essex disaster later helped inspire Moby-Dick, but the real story is darker, stranger, and more human than the legend. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 The whale that turned back 1:10 Nantucket and the Essex 2:40 Hunting in the far Pacific 4:00 The first strike 5:05 It came back 6:10 Abandoning the Essex 7:05 The route decision 8:25 Lost in open boats 9:45 Henderson Island 10:45 Survival breaks down 12:15 Rescue at last 13:15 Why the Essex still haunts us SOURCES: Owen Chase, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex Thomas Nickerson’s survivor account Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea / Vanity Fair excerpt Historical records on the whaleship Essex and its crew If you want more true survival stories from the sea, subscribe to Deep Water. Question: if you had been in one of those boats after the Essex sank, would you have chosen the nearer islands to the west, or the long route toward South America? #Essex #MaritimeHistory #DeepWater