It was a bright morning on November 20, 1820, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, 1,500 nautical miles west of the Galápagos Islands. For crew essexIt was a day full of hope: Lookouts atop the whale ship I saw squirts, I saw signs of nearby sperm whales. However, within a few hours, instead of reward, tragedy befell the ship’s crew. inspire Herman Melville’s great American novel, Moby-Dick.

essex In August 1819, he left his native island and began his last journey. NantucketMassachusetts, sperm whalerich Pacific Ocean. 238 ton shipBuilt in 1799, the ship was about 100 tons smaller and two decades older than the flashiest ships to come out of Nantucket. But based on the financial success of his previous trips sperm oil—high quality lighting oil spermaceti organ This ship, found in the head of a sperm whale, was considered a desirable, even lucky ship by local whalers.

But essex‘s luck was out. From the start of his voyage in 1819, his crew faced hardships or, in the words of one superstitious 19th-century sailor, bad omens. On the second day at sea, a storm completely tilted the ship. First mate Owen Chase wrote: “The entire crew of the ship were for a short time thrown into a state of great surprise and confusion.” his account your journey, The Story of the Whaling Ship Essex’s Most Extraordinary and Sad Shipwreck. They lost two whaling boats (smaller boats used to approach and kill whales) but continued to advance.

The ship’s success in whaling was equally variable; There were dry spells followed by successful manias. But after rounding Cape Horn and they discovered that the sailors who silently followed the coast of Chile were of little use. overwhelming success In the new year, 450 barrels of oil obtained from 11 whales were filled off the coast of Peru in just two months.

Speed tired crew, but when a lookout noticed something pod of sperm whales On the morning of November 20, the sailors nevertheless launched the whaleboats and followed with the men. Chase’s crew at first harpooned a whale, but the whale slammed its tail against the boat and the men were pulled ashore. essex.

There, Chase observed a “very large sperm whale” rapidly approaching the ship and then crashing into it. After a “terrible and enormous jar” essex “He stood up suddenly and violently, as if he had been struck by a rock, and shook like a leaf for a few seconds.”

The whale bobbed on the surface of the waves for a moment before striking again. “He came out with tenfold anger and vengeance,” Chase wrote. It hit its head on the bow, completely shattering the ship’s hull before floating away.

The crew set off for the remaining whaleboats, along with those who had not yet returned. essexHe spent the next few days collecting supplies from the wreck, setting new sails on the small ship, and debating where to sail for salvation. Eventually, they decided to proceed 2,000 nautical miles towards the coast of South America, avoiding nearby islands.

“All the sufferings of these poor men,” says a young Melville, “could have been avoided by all human possibilities if, immediately after leaving the wreck, they had headed directly for Tahiti, from which they were then not far off.” noted In Chase’s own copy NarrativeThis later inspired him to tell his own tragic whaling story. “But they were afraid of cannibals.”

Ironically and tragically, the crew eventually succumbed to cannibalism in the months that followed. When they drifted at sea and landed on deserted islands, the members of the voyage were separated from each other and died of hunger, thirst and disease. Originally, sailors only ate comrades who died naturally. Then, on February 1, 1821, the survivors drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed to feed the others. The unfortunate victim submitted to their execution “with great fortitude and resignation,” Chase later wrote.

Later that month, a British ship picked up the stragglers from Chase’s group; these were so weak that they had to be carried aboard. The captain’s boat was rescued in mid-March, 117 days after it sank. Of the 20 or 21 whalers who left Nantucket essexonly eight survived.

Upon Chase’s return to his family, who “had given up on me for the loss of me,” his “unexpected appearance was met with the most grateful obligations and thanks to a benevolent Creator who guided me once more through darkness, distress, and death into the bosom of my country and friends.” Readers, too, have reason to be grateful: though Melville’s essexThe inspiring novel flopped upon publication and has since become part of the canon of American literature.