8/16/2023 0 Comments Captain george pollard jr.After spending two days salvaging what supplies they could, the 20 sailors set out in the three small whaleboats with wholly inadequate supplies of food and fresh water. The ship sank 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of South America. Chase and the remaining sailors frantically tried to add rigging to the only remaining whaleboat, while the steward ran below to gather up whatever navigational aids he could find. The whale finally disengaged its head from the shattered timbers and swam off, never to be seen again, leaving the Essex quickly going down by the bow. The whale crushed the bow, driving the vessel backwards. The whale recovered, swam several hundred yards ahead of the ship, and turned to face the bow. Fearing to leave the ship stuck thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he relented. Chase prepared to harpoon it from the deck when he realized that its tail was only inches from the rudder, which the whale could easily destroy if provoked by an attempt to kill it. Finally surfacing close on the starboard side of Essex, with its head by the bow and tail by the stern, the whale appeared to be stunned and motionless. The whale rammed the ship and then went under, battering it and causing it to tip from side to side. It lay motionless on the surface with its head facing the ship, then began to move towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. Chase was repairing the damaged boat on board when the crew observed a whale that was much larger than normal (alleged to be around 85 feet), acting strangely. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate’s boats had each harpooned a whale and were being dragged towards the horizon in what was known as a Nantucket sleighride. On the leeward side of Essex, Chase’s boat harpooned a whale, but its tail struck the boat and opened up a seam, resulting in the crew’s having to cut his line from the whale and put back to the ship for repairs. But at eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts, and the three remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a sperm whale pod. The launched whaleboats had come up empty for days, and on November 16, Chase’s boat had been “dashed…literally in pieces” by a whale surfacing directly beneath it. Thousands of miles from the coast of South America, tension was mounting among the officers of Essex, in particular between Pollard and Chase. Over seven days they captured 300 Galápagos giant tortoises to supplement the ship’s stocks. Due to the need to fix a serious leak, the vessel first anchored at Hood Island on October 8. To restock their food supplies for the long journey, the Essex sailed for Charles Island in the Galápagos Islands group. The area was nearly fished out, the crew encountered other whalers, who told them of a newly discovered hunting ground, known as the “offshore ground”, this was an immense distance to travel out from land, and they weren’t familiar with the area. This passage took about five weeks, many on the ship started to believe this was a bad omen.Įssex began the long spring and summer hunt in the warm waters of the South Pacific Ocean, going up the western coast of South America. Deciding to continue without repairing the damage, Essex rounded Cape Horn in January 1820. Two days after leaving port, the ship was hit by a squall that knocked her on her side, nearly sinking her. Their fateful voyage began on Augas they left Nantucket on what at the time was expected to be a roughly two-and-a-half-year voyage to the whaling grounds off the west coast of South America. Owen Chase was 23, and the youngest member of the crew was the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, who was 14. Only 29, Pollard was one of the youngest men ever to command a whaling ship. He was accompanied on ship with his first mate, Owen Chase, they had served together on her previous, equally successful trips, and it led to their promotions. The American whaling ship Essex was from Nantucket, Massachusetts and was captained by George Pollard, Jr. Many have heard the story about the great white whale Moby Dick, who sunk the ship Pequod, but did you know it was actually based on a real ordeal? Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!” – Captain Ahab “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale to the last I grapple with thee from hell’s heart I stab at thee for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
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