The island lacked the resources to truly replenish their supplies, but three of the crew nevertheless elected to remain behind while the others resumed their voyage. Roughly a month into the journey, they happened across a deserted island (Henderson Island) and refreshed their store of water. Over the next three months, the survivors would endure countless storms and more attacks on their boats-once by a killer whale, and another by a shark. They then headed toward South America in search of food and shelter. The crew split up into three small whaling boats captained by Pollard, Chase, and second mate Matthew Joy. It was, in late November of 1820, that a sperm whale rammed into the Essex, sinking the ship. The crew set a course for a region known as the Offshore Ground, a breeding spot for whales located many thousands of miles away from land. Several months passed without the crew sighting a single whale. The Essex sailed on toward the Pacific Ocean. Rather than return for materials to repair the ship properly, Captain Pollard decided to make do with materials available on the ship, fearing that a return to Nantucket harbor would prompt many of the crew members to abandon the mission.
Not long after leaving the harbor, Captain Pollard failed to take necessary precautions to brace for an approaching storm: The ship was nearly overturned by the wind, and the storm took out all but three of the ship’s whaleboats while causing great structural damage to the Essex itself. The ship was heavily segregated, with Nantucketers, especially higher-ranking ones, receiving much better living accommodations and much better monetary compensation for the journey.Īs Philbrick tells the story, the voyage of the Essex was fraught with misfortune and poor decision-making from the start.
Although most whaling expeditions were crewed exclusively of Nantucket natives, the Essex was setting out late in the season with a freshly minted captain, so she had to settle for those who were available, many of whom had little prior experience serving on whaling expeditions. Also among the crew were some men from the mainland, including several African Americans. The latter’s memoirs (along with those of Nickerson) serve as one of the primary sources Philbrick used in researching his book. The majority of the crew aboard the Essex were native Nantucketers, including the ship’s captain, George Pollard, and first mate, Owen Chase. The great risk of setting off on a whaling expedition was returning home without enough product to generate a profit. At the time the Essex set sail, whaling ships were not expected to return home for at least two years. Meanwhile, the eradication of the whale population in and around Nantucket harbor forced Nantucketers to travel farther and farther in pursuit of whales. As the whaling industry grew larger, Nantucketers, who were also largely members of the Quaker religion, came to form an insulated community, preferring to work only with other islanders. Whale hunting became a way of life among those in Nantucket children trained to hunt whales from an early age. However, once it was realized that whale blubber could be converted into oil, the economy shifted to focus on the whales that regularly migrated through Nantucket harbor. The island’s white settlers, who arrived in the mid-17th century, initially developed an agricultural economy. The book begins with a discussion of various aspects of Nantucket’s history, explaining just how the island grew to be such a major player in the whaling industry. Weighing in at 238 tons and measuring 87 feet in length, The Essex set sail from the Massachusetts island of Nantucket in August 1819 to hunt whales in the Pacific Ocean. Content Warning: The source material contains extensive discussion of survival cannibalism as well as violence against animals.
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