Narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of the whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket : which was attacked and finally destroyed by a large spermaceti-whale, in the Pacific Ocean : with an account of the unparalleled sufferings of the captain and crew during a space of ninety-three days at sea, in open boats, in the years 1819 & 1820

Narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of the whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket : which was attacked and finally destroyed by a large spermaceti-whale, in the Pacific Ocean : with an account of the unparalleled sufferings of the captain and crew during a space of ninety-three days at sea, in open boats, in the years 1819 & 1820 / by Owen Chase.

Author/creator	Chase, Owen
Format	Electronic and Book
Publication Info	New-York : W.B. Gilley, 1821 (J. Seymour)
Description	128 p. ; 21 cm.
Supplemental Content	Gale, Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926
Subject(s)	Essex (Whaleship) Shipwrecks. Whaling.

Series	Sabin Americana : History of the Americas, 1500-1926 Sabin Americana : History of the Americas, 1500-1926. UNAUTHORIZED
Summary	First hand account by the first mate of the Essex which was shipwrecked and sunk by a whale, this becoming the inspiration for Melville's Moby Dick. Describes the ramming and sinking of the ship by a furious sperm whale on Nov. 20, 1819 some 2,000 miles west of the Galapagos. The surviving twenty crew members struggled to exist in three open boats, but only eight lived through the ordeal. Six men who died of natural causes were eaten by their shipmates and one other crew member was shot and eaten. The voyage of the two small boats, rescued off South America, was twice as long as that of Bligh after the Bounty Mutiny. Australian connections include the ship Surry picking up three men on Henderson/Elizabeth Island and their trip to Sydney stopping at Pitcairn Island; eventual accounts by the survivors and Surry crew; Thomas Raine, Surry captain, prominence in the Australian whaling industry.
Local note	Maritime.
Local note	2011AF18400.
Local note	Maritime.
Local note	2011AF18400.
General note	Errata: p. [12].
General note	Reproduction of original from The American Antiquarian Society.
General note	Sabin no. 12189.
Reproduction note	Electronic reproduction. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, 2012. Available via the World Wide Web. Access limited by licensing agreements.

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