Narratives of the Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex

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Summary: Melville's inspiration for Moby Dick. A harrowing tale.
Review: Narratives of three crew members of the Whale-Ship Essex, which in 1819 was stove by a whale and sunk.

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Summary: An Incredibly Haunting Piece of American History
Review: Owen Chase and the rest of the survivors of the Whale Ship Essex prove that the colonists of America were some of the bravest participants in the history of the world.

This book was originally reccommended to me as a companion to Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", and I wasn't expecting to be so horified and captivated.

Owen Chase lends a very personal component to this book. It must have been difficult for a man of his stature to recount, in detail this bizarre ship wreck and the even more extraodinary aftermath.

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Summary: A Classic Sea Story
Review: This book collects all the narratives by survivors of the sinking of the whaleship Essex. The Essex was the ship that was rammed and sunk by a whale, an incident that provided the inspiration for the climax of Melville's Moby-Dick. Most of the book is filled out with first mate Owen Chase's famous account, the bulk of which is narrarated in a diary format. It also includes shorter accounts by Captain Pollard and Thomas Chapple, who claimed to be the second mate, although Chase said that Matthew P. Joy was. Taken together, these stories provide a gripping account of survival and suffering, and towards the end of their ordeal these men even began to practice cannibalism. Pollard gives a very moving account of the casting of lots to decide who would be killed and eaten.