Gavin's review
The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale (Penguin Classics)
by Owen Chase, Nathaniel Philbrick
Gavin's review
The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale (Penguin Classics) by Owen Chase, Nathaniel Philbrick
Gavin's review
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The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale by various survivors of that, the most prominent of whom, in terms of length of account, are Owen Chase (the 1st mate) and Thomas Nickerson (15 years old at the time of the sinking). From this event Moby Dick was born. Moby Dick is one of my all-time favourite American novels, but these first person accounts take some beating. Read of the hardships experienced, the whale attack and how some of the crew survived, at times by eating each other. 7 out of 20 men survived, 3 having been left at Henderson Island in the Pitcairn group. The Pitcairns have long fascinated me, indeed much of the Pacific has, and one day I'll try to get there. I wondered when reading this if the cave mentioned by Nickerson from the account he had from the men left at Henderson has ever been found. It had been, and there's even some controversy over whose skeletons they were. A whole site is devoted to henderson Island, an uninhabited speck in the ocean, and a very inter...more
