80-Ton Whale Attacks

The Ess

On November 20, 1830, an 80-ton sperm whale attacked the Essex, a whaling ship out of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The ship was 2,000 miles off the western coast of South America at the time, but the accounts are tragic and gruesome, much like those of the Donner Party.

Owen Chase, First Mate

The Essex had launched in 1799 and was under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr. at the time of the whale attack. The whale sank the ship and stranded the 20-man crew in the Pacific Ocean. They survived by eating the 5 dead crewmen. During their 95 days stranded at sea, however, the situation became dire again, and they drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed so that some would survive. Eight men were finally rescued. Two of them (the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, and the first mate, Owen Chase) later wrote accounts of their ordeal.

Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick, which released in 1851, was partly inspired by this incident. He used the sailors' accounts as he wrote the attack scene in his book. 

Scene from Moby Dick




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