Customer Reviews

The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex

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There's nothing wrong with this book except that there is a more comprehensive collection published by Penguin Classics titled, "The Loss Of The Ship Essex, Sunk By A Whale." The Penguin Classic includes not only Owen Chase's story in his own words but also contains that of Thomas Nickerson a fellow shipmate of the Essex. Nickerson's account has been lost for decades and reading Chase's account alone would be cheating yourself of a real treat since Nickerson is by far the better storyteller.

Just imagine the unthinkable:- a whale, that most placid animal, suddenly turns on its tormentors with malice apparent in its intent and within a few minutes, reduces the ship, not the boat that harpooned it, to a sinking wreck, a thousand miles from any land. The subsequent journey to safety of the eight survivors is recounted by the first mate in graphic detail and with great literary skill; you have to admire the fortitude displayed by Mr. Chase in keeping an accurate log, even in the extremes of privation and heat exhaustion, as well as the psychological assault of that ultimate horror (at that time) of cannibalism. Put in their position, would I do the same - absolutely! It speaks volumes that very little was said about the Essex party, whereas the Donner party were unjustly vilified for doing exactly the same thing to preserve the remaining members of their company. I can do no better justice to this book than to quote Gary Kinder:- "...settle back into that overstuffed leather chair and let the most amazing story in the annals of the sea transport you to a different time, a different breed, an experience few could believe...".

This is an excellent book to take on a plane or read on a day at the beach. At a little over a hundred pages, it can be read in one sitting, yet it's the narrative of an actual event-the ship wreck that inspired the novel, Moby Dick. Best for me was the glossary in the back that explains some of those terms I always read in those old nautical novels, but never understood.

"The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex" is much more than just the inspiration for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." It stands alone as a remarkable account of survival in a hostile environment. It's probably difficult for modern readers to truly grasp the impact First Mate Owen Chase felt when his ship the Essex sank in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, leaving 20 men to fend for themselves in three frail whaling boats. In 1820, the loss of the ship meant that Chase and his men were truly on their own. His account and shock reflect the enormity of what losing a ship meant to these men. The ship was their world and without it, they faced an ardorous journey. Chase also accurately captures the shock of seeing a whale attack his ship twice. An experienced whaler, Chase watched dumbfounded as a creature he always thought to be gentle and placid appear to deliberately sink the Essex.

Chase has managed to balance these feelings of anguish and fear with determination to survive. His story also vividly recounts a bygone time when Nantucket whalers seemed to own the seas, and industry at home depended on the oil these men brought back. We seem to forget that whaling and its fruits were an essential part of early American commerace and life. This book puts Chase's account of his survival clearly in context with its times. Highly recommended.

Hello !I just finished this book ... it is truely amazing . Words can't describe the sheer terror these men went through in order to reach their loved ones ! Truely amazing . The start is a little slow but once the whale and the ship face off this is a rivetting , enthralling book ! A must read !

Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of the flood.....
Herman Melville, MOBY DICK

On the 12th day of August 1819, the whaleship Essex put out from Nantucket on her last and fatal voyage. Before her two-and-a-half year trip would be done, her bows would be stove in by an unheard-of act of aggression--the seemingly intentional attack by a sperm whale. Her crew of twenty men would find themselves in three small, flimsy whaleboats whose sides rose mere inches above the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles from salvation. Not all would see the mainland again.

The slim volume of THE WRECK OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX is the account that Owen Chase, first mate and one of the few survivors, penned of his ship's destruction and of her crew's sufferings in the months following as they tried to survive and strove to reach safety. In it, Chase gives the reader some idea of the wracking thirst, the pitiless burning sun, the destructive waves, the despair, and the deaths that stalked the crew across the trackless wilderness of ocean. When the last morsel of the mercilessly hoarded hard bread finally vanished, the only source of food was the flesh of some of the crew themselves.

Chase's account is a factual, unadorned diary of the crew's travails. He was obviously a literate man but not a professional writer. His book is clearly and grammatically written, although early 19th century English will strike some modern readers as stilted or perhaps quaint. Such a mere recitation of fact, however, cannot adequately convey the sense of desperation, the fear of dying, the loathing at having to eat the flesh of one's companions if one is to live another few hours that these men surely felt.

If the reader wishes to experience more fully the emotions of the crew as hope turns to hopelessness and as the will to survive becomes only a desire to end one's interminable suffering through death, then he should turn to Nathaniel Philbrick's IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: THE TRAGEDY OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX. Chase's first-hand account gives us the facts of the unprecedented catastrophe, but Philbrick conveys the feelings of the men as they strove to survive yet one more day or, in some cases, surrendered to their fate.

The danger in Philbrick's book is that it is so graphic in the horrors it depicts that the reader may come to feel that he is reading a fictional work, so hard is it for the modern reader to conceive of the degree of suffering endured by the Essex's crew. Reading Owen's first-hand account will remind the reader that what he is experiencing vicariously was experienced both physically and psychologically by twenty men less than two hundred years ago, and that over half of that company were seen to die or to vanish forever in the vastness of the ocean. Read IN THE HEART OF THE SEA to gain a more complete picture of this incredible episode, and read THE WRECK OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX to reassure yourself that Philbrick's book is indeed factual and not the stuff of a horror novel.

Moby Dick is so dry for young readers with all the details of life on a whaler, this book is much more the adventure, the what happens when the whale decides that he's had enough. How men endure when they run out of food, then water, then people start to die. It's a fairly fast read and Owen gives a fairly good account of the problems and the horror of the men as they watch the whale ram their ship.

Nothing can be as inspirational as much as man's plight of survival against nature. The ability to persevere and to extend on'e spirit to the maximum truly does provide something to look forward to and to fight for. Owen Chase's short memoir on just that holds true to everything of how the human spirit is the most unrelenting of all creatures on God's green Earth. Man maybe nature's favorite son, but when it comes to hardships, he is hardly found lacking and this book clearly demonstrates that.

Chase draws up the facts straight. He takes the reader for a very mellow ride when compared to the horrors that he and the other 19 men of the Essex sustained. Since the book was written in the mid 19th century, that was the norm in the style of writing, especially when it was set as a non-fiction memoir. Through it all though, keen readers can clearly picture what Chase and his men have been through and the hardships that the 5 final survivals of the ship lived through. This impassivity just could not be held in when Chase started describing the severe hunger that they were facing and the acts that they had to commit in order to survive the ordeal. Not just feeding off the non-living, but actually killing for sustenance. It's when that tale is being said that the reader can feel the pain, that Chase went through, not only acting upon it, but actually writing about it as well. It's very hard to actually imagine the suffering of such men at first, but when they had to regress to their primal self, it is that horror that just leaves the survivors scarred for life.

Chase's recounts of what he and his crew have been to echo in the deep corners of humanity. Pointing what man would commit to survive and his ability to live through the hardships of the unknown. He also points throughout the whole ordeal, how small and weak man really is, not really in control of his life and situations as he would like to believe. That through it all, his fate is in the hands of a Higher Power. In the hands of the Almighty God.

I really liked this book. I recommend skipping the intro (gives away too much) and reading the glossary in the back first. Read it before you see "Castaway". Since it was written at 1821, it is an adventure but gives a real sense of the time. It's a fast read and appealed to me even though it may be a guy book.

This book is a 2000 reprint of an edited text published in 1965 by Iola Haverstock and Betty Shepard that seems to have been produced to cash in on the interest aroused by the unrelated movie "Perfect Storm". It tells the true story of the Nantucket whaleship "Essex" as it sails from its home port down the coast of S.America and around Cape Horn to the Pacific whaling grounds. After replenishing their supplies on the Galapagos Islands they continue their hunting. A month out from the Galapagos, the ship is sunk by an enraged whale. The 21 crew salvage what supplies they can and set off in 3 open lifeboats hoping to sail themselves to the Marquesas Islands about 2500 miles away. Nature intervenes and the crew faces storms, shark attacks, thirst and hunger. As their numbers dwindle, they resort to cannibalism to survive. The book is an astonshing tale of survival amid false hopes (the vagaries of the weather first allowing fair sailing then foul, landing on an island only to find it has no fresh water) and inconceivable choices. The book has several flaws as pointed out by other reviewers. It is very difficult to determine how much the book has been edited from the original diary and manuscript by Owen Chase. The book also raises interest in environmental concerns - for example, while replenishing at the Galapagos the Essex caught 360 giant turtle for fresh meat. The depredations of an entire whaling fleet over decades surely had a massive impact on the ecosystem. We also learn that 6 of the 21 crew were black at least 4 of whom died (or were killed?) and eaten. The racial differences and attitudes are not discussed (and this was still a time of slavery) so it would be interesting to find out more as to what extent race played a role in deciding who lived and died. Overall, the book blew my mind as to the limits of human endurance. Where there's life there's hope has never been more true.