Owen Chase

“I have no language to paint the horrors of our situation. To shed tears was indeed altogether unavailing and withal unmanly yet I was not able to deny myself the relief they served to afford me.”
― Owen Chase, The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale

“on the 2nd of october we set sail for the Galapagos Islands. We came to anchor, and laid seven days off Hood’s Island, one of the group; during which time we stopped a leak which we had discovered, and obtained three hundred turtle. We then visited Charles Island, where we procured sixty more. These turtle are a most delicious food, and average in weight generally about one hundred pounds, but many of them weigh upwards of eight hundred. With these, ships usually supply themselves for a great length of time and make a great saving of other provisions. They neither eat nor drink, nor is the least pains taken with them; they are strewed over the deck, thrown underfoot, or packed away in the hold, as it suits convenience. They will live upwards of a year without food or water, but soon die in a cold climate.”
― Owen Chase, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex