September 15, 2025 • 38 mins
We’re diving into the wild world of whaling today, specifically the tale of Nantucket’s infamous whale ship, the Essex. This ship had a seriously rough go when it crossed paths with a vengeful sperm whale back in 1820, turning the crew from hunters into the hunted. Imagine facing starvation and even cannibalism just to survive—yikes, right? This harrowing saga didn’t just sink a ship; it also inspired Herman Melville to spin his epic yarn, Moby Dick. So grab your life vests, folks, as we navigate through this captivating slice of maritime history that’s as thrilling as it is chilling!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Today we set sail to theisland of Nantucket, once the epicenter
of the global whalingindustry. In the early 19th century,
this small island was home toa fleet of ships that ventured across
the world's oceans in pursuitof the mighty sperm whale, whose
oil illuminated homes andcities around the world. Among these
(00:30):
vessels was the whale shipEssex, which met a tragic fate in
1820 when it turned fromhunter to hunted by a now infamous
white whale. The harrowingordeal of its crew, who faced starvation,
exposure and resorted tocannibalism to survive, captured
the imagination of countlesspeople. People like a Mr. Herman
(00:51):
Melville, who, inspired by theEssexes story and his own experiences
at sea, penned the literarymasterpiece Moby Dick. Join us as
we delve into Nantucket's richwhaling heritage, explore the true
story of the Essex anddiscover how these events left their
own mark on literature and onhistory. Welcome to Talk with History.
(01:24):
I'm your host Scott, here withmy wife and historian Jen.
Hello.
On this podcast we give youinsights to our history Inspired
World Travels YouTube channelJourney and examine history through
deeper conversations with thecurious, the explorers and the history
lovers out there. Alrighty,Jen. So today for those who I think
(01:46):
this will be our first oneback after a little bit of break.
So I hope that our audiencehas been enjoying kind of a look
back on some of our favoriteepisodes from some of more popular
episodes. And we are kind ofgetting into our Northeastern history,
whaling history, Nantucket,all this stuff because you've been
working for American cruiselines now over the summer and you're
(02:07):
kind of wrapping up the summertour season so you'd have some more,
more adventures to kind of togo on up there. But you had the opportunity
to go to Nantucket, which isnot someplace that you and I would,
we would seek it out, but it'dbe hard for us, for us to do. So
let's talk a little bit aboutNantucket and whaling history. This
is such an interesting piece,kind of corner and niche of American
(02:30):
history, especially with, youknow, people will know from the intro
and the podcast title withMoby Dick and Herman Melville. So
let's, let's talk a little bitabout that era, kind of how it came
to be and where it evolved to.
It's so much a part of, it'sweaved into American history. So
much the whaling industry andthen the book. Right. Call Me Ishmael
(02:53):
is probably the most famousfirst line of any piece of literature.
I'd say it's. Personally, Ithink Tale of Two Cities is the best
times are the Worst, worsttimes, the best of times. But I think.
Call me Ishmael. It's.
Call me Ishmael.
It's a, it's. I think it'sbasically a tie.
I love it. So I was inMassachusetts. So when you think
(03:15):
of Massachusetts, this littlesquare on one side state and kind
of like curvy on the otherside because of all these little
islands on the south east partof it. And you get Martha's Vineyard
in Nantucket on these twolittle islands. It's the sixth smallest
state by area in America, butit's the most populous state in New
(03:37):
England. And when you think ofNew England and football, like this
is where everyone goes to seethe games and stuff. Even though
there's a bunch of states thatmake up New England, the Massachusetts
is really what you think of itoriginated in 1630. And then you
got those Cape Islands, MathisVineyard in Nantucket. And my first
(03:58):
like experience ever withNantucket is probably the same as
yours was from the TV show Wings.
Yeah.
Was like, oh, so cool. Where'sNantucket? They fly to Nantucket,
they fly back and forth toBoston. Someday I want to go. So
this was my first, first timeever to Nantucket.
Yeah. And, and for peoplelistening, right, if you're watching,
(04:19):
I'll kind of show a map ofwhere Nantucket is compared to, I'll
call it the mainland of theUnited States. But it's really like
if you start south of Boston,you'll hit Providence. That's kind
of the other Rhode island, youknow, main, main spot. Then from
Providence you start headingdue east, you're going to hit New
Bedford. That's kind of righton the coast. Right on the coast.
(04:40):
A little bit Ish. But thenNantucket is way out there. I didn't
realize how far out off thecoast Nantucket was. That's why this
whaling history is, was kindof born there. It's because it's,
it's about as far as you cango and still kind of be connected
to the continental United States.
Yeah, it's the southeasternmost town in Massachusetts and in
(05:01):
the New England region.Because Nantucket is not only the
name of the island, it's thename of the town.
Yeah.
So it's like Nantucket,Nantucket. And Nantucket is adapted
from an Algonquin name andthat is the indigenous people there
meaning far away island. So itmakes sense. Right. So the whaling
industry, it was bustling inthe 19th century. You have to think
(05:23):
that the America was lit bywhale oil and the Industrial Revolution
was powered by Whale oil. Andwhat does that mean? You needed oil
to lubricate all of thoseindustrial gears. That's what was
used for that at the time.They hadn't. They hadn't discovered
petroleum yet. So everythingis lubricated with whale oil. Everything
(05:46):
is lit with whale oil. They'reusing whale, or they're using the
spermaceti from whale brainsfor candles and makeup.
So soap.
It's soap for everybody in theworld. So this is why this industry
is so huge. And it reallyfinds, like, it' its jewel of the
(06:06):
whaling industry is NantucketIsland. It's just a place that it
really is immersed in that.And that's why Moby Dick will have
a whole chapter to Nantucket.When we talk about the Essex, which
is the ship that's based offof Moby Dick, they're. They're. The
captain is from Nantucket, theship is from Nantucket. You're going
(06:26):
to get men represented fromMartha's Vineyard and New Bedford,
because these are like the bigplaces of wailing. So characters
come from all of thesedifferent places. But in reality,
with the Essex, the threemajor guys or the main characters,
they're Nantucketers. So it'sjust. It's a place that. It's just
synonymous with whaling.
(06:47):
And this wasn't just like acouple decades, this was like over
a hundred years that. Thatwhaling was big there. Like, the
pictures that I could find ofwhalers doing their thing in the.
In that era were from the 1920s.
Oh, yeah, right.
So they were doing that for.For quite some time.
So whaling, I mean, whalingwas really indigenous to the people
there because the way itworked there was. There's a lot of
(07:09):
indigenous stories of a famouschief who. A whale washed up on shore.
The chief was a giant, grabbedthe whale by the tail and banged
it against the side of theisland and showed the people how
to harvest it. And so thiskind of legend of whaling starts
with the people there becausewhales were. This was a very busy
(07:31):
whale area, environmentalhistory. Whales migrated all through
these islands and when theywould die, they would wash up on
shore. And when they washed upon shore, the. The first peoples
there would harvest it.
Yeah.
And so they would cut off theblubber. They would boil the blubber,
boil the blubber into whaleoil, cut off the head, find the spermaceti.
(07:51):
They'd use every bit of it,the whale tongue, a great source
of protein. So then eventuallythey just would get in boats and
just go right off the shore.And that's why harpooners, so the
harpooner is the man on thevery end of the boat who harpoons
the whale in the beginning.And we'll talk about what that process
looks like. The most famousones were from Nantucket because
(08:15):
they just did it right off theisland for so long because the whales
would migrate right there.They would just get in their boats,
row out, harp. Harpoon awhale, you know, and then, you know,
kill the whale and then bringthe whale in to the shore and then
all the people there wouldharvest it. That was very much a
part of their culture for avery long time until America really
(08:37):
had the demand for whale oil.And all of a sudden all of these
whales are harvested in thisnatural area of migration and so
there's no more left. And somuch so that the whaling industry,
when we get to the Essex,there's no more whales left in this
New England area. There's nomore whales really left on the Atlantic
(08:58):
side of America. They have togo around South America to the Pacific
to whale because it's been soover harvest.
Yeah, that was one thing Ididn't, I don't think I ever really
realized until you made thevideo and then I, I made it yesterday.
We just recently published itwas. That's the reason that, you
(09:19):
know, the Essex was on theother side of, of the Americas was
because they had essentiallylike hunted out all the whales in
the Atlantic.
I mean, so when you think ofwhaling, they're going after four
basic whales. They're goingafter the humpback, the fin, the
right whale, and of course thesperm whale. And the sperm whale
is the most prized whalebecause the sperm whale, the Pinocchio
(09:39):
whale has the big head. Andwith the big head comes a big brain,
which comes all thatspermaceti whales don't have that.
They're kind of flat there.And so everyone's looking for a sperm
whale. And even Moby Dick inthe book is a sperm whale. Now these
whales are so over hunted andharvested, they almost hunt them
(10:02):
all to extinction.
Wow.
That's how bad it gets becausethey are just hunting these whales.
And that's why when we talkabout the Essex, we talk about a
whale fighting back is whalesare starting. They're not, they're
not unintelligent animals.Right. You would think they are the
biggest animal, the, thelargest animals. Their brains are
(10:22):
relatively large as well. Theyunderstand what's happening by this
point, by this hundred yearsof them and probably watching, because
they travel in pods, watchingpieces of their pods being plucked
away, that they realize what's happening.
So so, so tell me a little bitabout the Essex and kind of the main
(10:42):
characters there. And thenwas, was the Essex actually like,
I know in Moby Dick, it's thewhite whale. Was that true to life
as well for the Essex story?
So there was a white whale. Solet me, let's talk a little bit about
how whaling works and thenwe'll go into the Essex. But yes,
what was found, especially nowthat we don't whale like we used
(11:04):
to, when whales get very old,70, 80 years old, they turn white.
Oh, okay.
So what probably happened inMoby Dick, it's an albino whale,
which could very much happen.There was a whale that people did
report seeing, but it couldmost more likely was a whale that
(11:24):
had survived.
The whaling industry had justbeen around.
For so long that it had turnedwhite because of its age. And that
is what naturally happens now,since the whaling industry is not
anything near what it used tobe. But let me talk, I just want
to talk a little bit about howwhaling works because people get
confused sometimes. Like, howis this ship taking these huge whales?
(11:46):
Like, how are they gettingthese huge whales to the ship and
then harvesting them? So awhaling ship usually has five whaling
boats. So remember, a boatgoes on a ship and, and in the navy,
we also like to refer tosubmarines as boats. So you have
five whaling boats. And in, ona whaling ship you get two people
(12:10):
who go into the crow's nest,which is on the largest mass, which
is usually center mast, andthey're watching for the blowhole
of a whale, right? They'rewatching for that water spout. And
when they see it, it's justlike a movie, like there she blows.
Right? And so they will turnthe ship towards that because it's
usually a pod. Whales don'ttravel alone, so they usually go
(12:32):
toward that area. And the menget into the whaling boats. Usually
three will go out and theyhave five in case something happens.
And a team of six would be inthe whaling boat. So you have two
people ro. We have four peoplerowing the boat, one person in the
back working the rudder andthe harpooner out in front. And think
of a harpoon as this hugejavelin of metal, right, With a elaborate
(12:57):
type of hook on it. And theycame up with all these different
kind of designs and things.And, and a whaling ship would carry
like 150 harpoons, right?Because you never know what's going
to happen.
Well, and I think you evenmentioned it in the video too, is
a lot of times, once theystart harpooning Right. And trying
to wear it down, it's kind oflike fishing, right? You hook the
fish and if, especially ifit's a bigger fish, you kind of let
(13:18):
it go out and reel it back in.And let it go out and reel it back
in, wear it down to when youcan finally get to it. But there
was times, I think you say itin the video, that the whales would
dive and they'd have to cutthe line.
So there's three things thatcan happen. So they go out to the
whale, they stop kind ofrowing as they get close, because
the whale can hear, and theyget as close as they can. And that's
why the harpooner, it's such aspecialized skill because they are
(13:41):
throwing that harpoon, they'renot getting real close to the whale
because the whale can hearthem. So it's like a javelin thrower,
right? And he's holding thisbig piece of metal that's attached
to a rope that's attached tothe boat. So he's trying to get this,
this javelin, this harpooninto a big chunk of the whale. And
the whale can do three things.It can dive, and if it dives, you
(14:04):
better cut that line as quickas you can. That's how you lose a
harpoon. But if you don't,you're all going down.
So it's just. It's going topull the boat down.
It's going to pull the boatdown. It's strong enough to pull
you all down. It can turn backon you and attack your boat, which
is also when you're going tocut the line and try to get away.
There are instances of whalejaws crunching boats.
Wow.
Right, so or it can run, andthat's what you want it to do. It's
(14:27):
called the Nantucket SleighRide. You want the whale to stay
on the surface and. And runand try to get away. And the six
men in the boat are going tohold on and it's going to go back
and forth. And they're tryingto tire out the whale. And you can
kind of think almost likeJaws, a little foreshadowing here
with the barrels. Right.They're trying to make the. The shark
(14:48):
tired. They're trying to getthe whale tired. Once it gets tired
and it runs out of gas and itneeds to catch its breath. It's a
mammal. It has to come up andbreathe. They pull in closer to it,
and by doing that, then theyget spears out and every man on the
boat will try to spear thewhale in its lungs on the side and
(15:09):
on the back, and they'rewatching for blood to come out of
the blow hole. Once bloodcomes out of the blow hole, they
say chimneys of fire, whichmeans the whale is going to die.
Anytime you get blood in your lungs.
Man, I, I can't imagine, likewatching or participating in something
like that. How. Like justphysically demanding and exhausting
(15:29):
and brutal and. I mean, it'sjust all the things dirty. I mean,
dirty and not just. Now weknow like whaling is, is. I think
it's illegal in lots ofplaces, if not most of the world.
But think about what they weredoing. These guys are rowing boats
out there and smack in themiddle of the ocean. Just like, like,
(15:51):
it's crazy to me to thinkabout these guys doing this.
Yeah, the brute strength.
Yeah.
And when, when I say chimneysof fire in the blood's shooting up,
where do you think thatblood's going?
Yeah, I mean, they're pullingthemselves up, up to the whale.
It's all over you. Right. Likeyou're getting hit with all of ocean
water and the blood and like.So it's just one of these, like.
It's such a brutal thing todo, but it was so lucrative and for
(16:15):
a sailor's life. We'll talkabout this with the Essex. And it
really was a balance there.You could be African American, you
could be white, you could befrom different places and you would
all be making the same money.So it's one of those, one of those
jobs that everyone was treatedequally and you really were treated
on your skill level. So.
(16:36):
So when they, they kill it,right? There's. There's the blood
and all of a sudden, like. Soare they. Then kind of like. Is the,
the larger whaling ship comingup closer? So you're going to fall
it over?
Yes. So you're going to waitfor the whale to die. It's called
the flurry. So once you get itin the lungs and it's these chimneys
of fire, you don't have to doanything else. The whale is going
(16:57):
to kind of swim in circles.It's going to go on its side and
flutter its tail. It's calledthe flurry. It's basically the end
of its life. Right. It'sgasping for air and then it'll die.
And then. Yes, the ship comesto you. You pull it to the ship and
this is when the real workbegins. This is why it's such an
exhausting job. So they'llbring it to the right side of the
(17:18):
ship and they'll chain it upto the side of the ship. And usually
the men would go to sleepbecause they're exhausted.
So, so they're harvesting itessentially like as it's strapped
to the side of the ship.They're not pulling this massive
sperm whale on, onto the deck.So they're just harvesting on the
side, hanging off the side ofthe ship.
Yeah.
And then they start doing allthis stuff.
Think of it's like 50 tons.
(17:39):
Wow.
50 ton whale. So what happensnow is it's 12 hours on, 12 hours
off. That's why they're,they're going to be working in two
shifts and they start toharvest this whale, which is basically
cutting symmetrical, basicallyrows of blubber off the side of the
whale. And they do have whatthey call tri works, which are really
(18:02):
just like a big metal ironcauldrons right in the middle of
the ship and they put in coalsunderneath it and they're cooking
this blubber into oil. And ona ship, which I always think is hilarious,
because if you know anythingabout being on a ship and the rocking
with this super, super hotboiling oil, like you're setting
yourself up for disaster here.But the deck would get super slippery
(18:26):
because there's oil all overthe deck. This is where you have
to be watching out for peoplefalling overboard. Because you know
what else follows a deadwhale? Oh yeah, sharks.
Sure.
So the shark's waiting for it.They're waiting for the.
And I think even when I foundpictures, when I was making the video
of a lot of these werepaintings, right? You know, obviously
of the 1800s because therewasn't any photography. But they
would paint the sharks in thewater, follow following the ship
(18:50):
with the whale like, you know,strapped to the side of the ship.
And they would paint thesharks in the water because they're
out there, that's chum for them.
So they're waiting for it. Soif you fall overboard, you don't
want to be overboard with abunch of sharks waiting in a bunch
of blood. So it's 12 hours on,12 hours off. As they're harvesting
the swell, which takes aboutthree days. It's exhausting. They're
boiling the blubber to makeoil and they're putting all the oil
(19:12):
into the boat barrels. Right.And so all the barrels go down below
into the storage. And this ishow you're getting all of this oil.
Then usually the head theysever, they put it on the front of
the ship. They usually make abig hole in the brain. And the cabin
boy, his lucky job is to belowered down into the Brain with
a bucket and he gets to bucketout the spermaceti and it smells
(19:37):
horrendous. People say youcould smell a whaling ship before
you could see it.
Wow.
Like it's just horrid. And sothis process takes about two or three
days. Men are exhausted.They're putting all the, the oil
into the barrels. They gotabout 10 barrels per whale. And they
(19:57):
clean the deck, right. Theygot to get all that oil off the deck,
clean the deck. They're goingto let the whale carcass go to the
sharks and they start thewhole process again.
That's, that's wild. So that'swhat the Essex was sailing around.
Did they sail all the wayaround the southern tip of South
America to get up to thePacific side?
Yes. So they had alreadysailed all the way and they had already
(20:19):
gotten like 10 whales. Theyhad about a hundred barrels. Usually
you have about 150, 120 coming back.
So they were almost done.
They were almost done. Right.They had left on August 12, 1819.
They encountered the whaleNovember 20, 1820. So they've been
(20:40):
gone now for about a littleover a year. A year and a couple
months. A whaling excursion,because it had to take you now to
the Pacific, was at least twoyears. And because of that you will
get instances of wives andchildren going with a whaling captain
because sometimes you didn'twant to be without them. So it's
not as rare as people thinkfor a woman to be on a ship. Sometimes
(21:03):
wives and children did go, butsometimes they didn't go. And when
I talk a lot about Nantucket,I want people to remember when the
men were gone because this wasa male dominated industry and they
were wailing like crazy to, tolight America. Women ran the island.
So you get a lot of likewomen's voting, women saying, my
husband and I vote this. Andthey were taking care of commerce,
(21:25):
they were taking care offixing houses and doing things, schools
like. It was a lot of womenempowerment there in Nantucket. And
you're going to see thatthrough history where New England
is going to be the start ofthe temperance movement. You're going
to get a lot of women'sstarting the right to vote in that
area because of all of thisinformal power that women have through
(21:46):
whaling. It kind of startsthis whole idea that women are taking
control of their power. So theEssex has gotten about 10 whales.
They are on the other side ofSouth America, on the Pacific side.
They're in the Galapagos area.And they go, they see a whale and
they go out after it. It's asperm whale. And the whale doubles
(22:10):
back on the ship and I thinkjust rams the ship twice. This is
November 20th. And breaks theEssex in half.
Just. And just. Just fromhitting it twice, even twice with
its head. Wow. And it's crazy.
I know. And these men arelike, oh, my gosh. So they're losing
all their oil. They lost.They. They lost the whole ship. And
they only at the time hadthree whaling boats.
(22:33):
Like I said, they essentiallyturn into, like, lifeboats.
Yeah, like I said, usuallywith five. They had lost two already
in that year that had justbeen destroyed. Like I said, a whale
had dove or had come back. Andso. So you lose ships in that way,
boats in that way. So theyonly had three. So when the. The
whale hits the Essex, smashesit in half, it sings. The. The 18
(22:57):
men, the 20 men go into thethree boats. And so you get Captain
Pollard. So he's fromNantucket, he's going to take control
of one boat. You have thefirst. First mate, Owen Chase, he's
also from Nantucket, he goesinto the second boat. And the second
mate, Matthew Joy, goes intothe third boat. I try to tell people
it's kind of like co exo opso.Like it's your three highest people.
(23:22):
And cabin boy goes with thefirst mate. So cabin boy goes with
the xo. And Captain Pollardalso has his cousin with him from
Nantucket. His cousin's only15 years old. And. And he promises
his cousin's mother, right,that he'll take care of him and stuff.
So it's. You can feel likeyou're setting yourself up for disaster
here.
So they're. They're kind of.They jump into the three boats, they
(23:45):
ration the food and rationeverything, and then they're basically
trying to find. I assumethey're trying to find the next closest
land where they can get on land.
So they give each other, liketwo casts, one barrel of water, one
box of hardtack. Hardtack wasthat cracker not realizing hard.
The hardtack everybody got hadbeen drenched in salt water. Salt
(24:08):
water dried. And they each gettwo turtles, so they eat the turtles
too. And they each get apistol. And so they make kind of
like makeshift masts, right?They put up these fake masks and
try to sail. They're trying tosail these boats because these boats
don't have. Have any sailingcapability of robots. Yeah, Right.
And so the closest islands tothem, they're right on the other
(24:31):
side of the Galapagos whenthis happens. The Marques Islands
and the Society Islands arethe closest islands to them, and
that's where the current wouldpush them. But they were concerned
that those islands hadcannibals. Oh, yeah, right. And in
reality, those islands hadalready been visited by missionaries
and there was no cannibalismgoing on there. They would have been
fine.
So if they had just stoppedthere, they'd. They'd been fine.
(24:53):
They would have been fine. Butthey didn't do that. So it's not
until December 20th, so that'sabout a month later that they make
Henderson Island.
So they've been in this littleboat for a month plus. Plus a little
over a month, and they'vealready hardtack and basically just
water.
(25:14):
And starvation is hit.
Oh, my gosh.
And Henderson Island, I thinkthey use the word island very loosely
here. It's basically like acoral reef that is kind of sustained
some land. So there's somefresh water there, there's some birds
there, there's some eggsthere. But after a week, these men
have eaten it all. Eat it all.They've depleted it, sure. So on
(25:37):
December 26, that's like noteven a week later, they decide that
they would starve if theystay. So they're gonna go. They're
gonna venture out in thesethree boats again. They leave three
men behind on HendersonIsland. The three men they leave
behind, William Wright, SethWeeks and Thomas Chapel, they're
the only white members of thecrew who are not native of Nantucket.
(25:59):
So they're. They're just notcapable sailors when you think about
it. Right. People were verymuch aware of where you were from
and how good you were. Yeah,Right. And so they knew that these
men would not be the bestsailors. They're not going to be
the best at handling this longexcursion. So. And I think one is
pretty sick. And so theydecide to stay on Henderson island
(26:20):
and just try their luck withrainfall and what other birds kind
of land there.
And I think those. Those threeactually end up surviving.
They end up surviving. Pollardtells them, when I get rescued, I'll
send a ship back for you. AndPollard actually does that. And that's
why they. All three of themwill survive.
That's wild.
So the other three ships go.In the beginning, some men will die
(26:44):
from exposure from sicknessand they give them burials at sea.
But when they start to realizethat they've been out there for a
while, they. And they have nofood, they start to resort to cannibalism.
And so it's going to be onPollard's boat where his cousin is
on the boat. They draw lotsand his cousin draws the lot. And
(27:05):
Pollard will argue with him.Remember, he promised his mother
I would bring him back. Thatit's my job. I'm the captain. I'm
gonna die. And his cousingives him a message to give his mother,
takes the gun and shootshimself before he even. Paula, even
has a chance. Like he. He justwants to do his duty. And that's
kind of what he says. AndPollard will never recover from this.
And this is why, even when hemeets Herman Melville, they only
(27:28):
talk for a couple minutes.Because Pollard really. This will
be some ptsd. Never has children.
I can't even imagine.
Right.
Like coming out of this and,and trying to be normal.
Yeah. So the first ship that'srescued will be the first mate ship.
February 18th. So think abouttwo months after they've left Henderson
Island, Lawrence, who wassteering Chase's Borough, spots a.
(27:52):
A sail. And they managed tocatch up with the vessel. It turns
out to be the British shipIndian. And so they have three men
still alive on their boat.You're going to have Owen Chase,
the cabin boy, and one of theharpooners has survived. So.
And I believe Owen Chase inthe movie Heart of the Sea, that
is Chris Hemsworth. ChrisHemsworth, right. The. You know,
(28:12):
you would know him from themovie Thor. Yeah, right. He's Thor.
But he plays the first mate.
It's. Yeah, Exo.
He play. He plays the firstmate who survives. And I think in
that movie the story is toldby, by him or like his, his children
or something like that.
Yeah. So in the movie it's notaccurate. It's the cat, it's the.
(28:32):
It's the cabin boy who hasgrown old, talks to Herman Melville
one on one. That neverhappened. Herman Melville. The only
person of the Essex thatHerman Melville ever talked to is
Pollard. For 10 minutes. We'lltalk about that On Nantucket after
he wrote the book. Book'salready been published. When he meets
him, the way Herman Melvillecomes in contact with this story
(28:56):
is he meets Owen Chase's son.
Okay.
And Owen Chase's son, becauseHerman Melville's trying to whale.
He takes a whaling ship fromNew Bedford and he's trying his best
to wail and he hates it. Hethinks it's horrible. So he basically
ditches it in Hawaii, which,you know, awol. And then he comes
(29:17):
into contact with Owen Chase'sson and he tells him this whole story
about his father and theEssex. And that's when Herman Melville
gets like, really? Yes. I canSee how that would be because I'm
miserable. So I'm gonna writea book about being miserable. And
really when you talk aboutMoby Dick, I always remind people
this is really a story of men,a man's obsession with revenge. And
(29:42):
it's really man against man.And they say Herman Melville had
a very precarious anddifficult relationship with the captain
of the whaling ship he was on.And so it's almost like he's writing
about him and thatrelationship and Pollard has nothing
to do with Ahab. When you seePollard and Ahab's, both of their.
(30:02):
The personalities arecompletely different and so. But
he's using the Essex of thebeing sunk by the whale as the backstory
for Moby Dick. And thenPollard's rescued on February 23rd.
So about five days after that,again, 93 days after the sinking,
(30:22):
Pollard is there with just oneother person, Ramsdale. And they
are spotted by the whale shipDolphine. And it is, if you read
the account, when they cameupon them, I can't even. They. They
didn't single for the ship oranything because the two men are
on opposite sides of the boatsucking on the bones of the men.
(30:44):
And when they came upon them,they weren't even sure who they were,
what they. They weren't evensure what was going on. And the only
way they got them onto theboat and the only way they could
get them to let go of thebones was to give them other fresh
food. They weren't even like they're.
They're so traumatized. So traumatized.
So this is Paul, it's thecaptain. Right. So they're basically
(31:07):
have become animals. And thenPollard will say there's three men
on Henderson Island. So inApril. So they, they rescued the
end of February. So In Aprilof 1921, the three men are rescued
from Henderson Island. Sothat's the story of man.
That's brutal. Now they getback and you had had the chance to
(31:29):
go, you know, on Nantucketthey have the Whaling Museum. So
a lot of this stuff, you know,you were able to see and they. There's
kind of displays and all thisstuff. Now you weren't able to take
video, but you take somepictures. Their website's pretty
good if you end up out there.I think you even said in the video
it's probably one of thebusier museums, if not the busiest
because that's kind of rightup front where people come in. And
it, from what it looked like,it gave you a really good overview
(31:52):
of kind of all the historythere in Nantucket and all that stuff.
So it was. It was pretty neat.
Yeah. So if you go to thatrailing museum in Nantucket, they're
going to tell you the story ofthe Essex, right. They have a. The
back of the ship is recreated.They're going to tell you the story
of the Essex, because theEssex was a Nantucket ship. And if
you go there, you can go towhere Pollard lives. So Pollard will
(32:16):
make it back to Nantucket, sowill Owen Chase, so will Benjamin
Lawrence. And BenjaminLawrence was on Owen Chase's ship.
He was the harpooner who wasrescued. And Benjamin Lawrence had
the only artifact, which was apiece of twine he kept playing with
on the ship. And that piece oftwine is in the Nantucket museum.
(32:41):
And we show pictures of it inthe video.
Super cool to see. Pollardwould get one other whaling ship.
After that, the two brothers.And the two brothers will sink off
the coast of Hawaii. Afterthat, he's never given another ship.
He goes, returns to Nantucket,he becomes a night watchman, which
is basically like securityguard. Security guard, nothing. And
(33:02):
people would just see the oldcaptain walk in the streets at night.
And this is when HermanMelville kind of meets him. And so
I take you to. Herman Melvillewill stay in a boarding house there.
And it kind of looks on toPollard's house. He waits to see
Pollard come out of his house.He goes down, meets him in the street,
talks to him for 10 minutes.Melville will say that meeting had
(33:27):
the most profound effect onhis life. He said he was one of the
most prestigious, amazing menhe's ever met. And it will. He even
writes a whole poem about it.Pollard never talks about that meeting.
And again, Pollard neverreally talks about the sinking. I
take you to his grave. He isin an unmarked grave in Nantucket
(33:47):
Cemetery. What's also kind ofneat about all of this is I take
you to where Owen Chase ishome was. That's the first mate.
That's Chris Hemsworth. Laterin his life, he loses his mind.
Yeah.
He resorts to living in hisattic and hoarding food in his attic.
(34:08):
And I think they kind ofportray that in the movie, right?
Yeah.
And they think he did thatbecause of the, you know, Food. No
food.
The trauma that he went through.
The trauma that he's stuck on a.
Lifeboat for three months.
Yeah.
With nothing.
And then the other person whotalks about it, it will be the cabin
boy, Thomas Nickerson. Hewrites a tale about this that is
also in the movie, who HermanMelville is supposed to have met,
(34:31):
but in reality, no HermanMelville met no other members of
the Essex besides Pollard.There was a whale called Mocha Dick.
And it's so funny, so funny tosay Mocha Dick Dick when you think
of Moby Dick or Mocha Dick.Mocha Dick is who. Moby Dick is based
off of this albino whale thatwas notorious. People had seen it
(34:55):
off the coast of SouthAmerica. It's kind of like another
name for John Jim Henry. It'sa common male name, John Doe. Yeah.
So that's why they called itMoby Dick. Mocha Dick. It's like
it's just this common male'sname. That's where that comes from.
But, yeah, so that's, that'sthat story. And, and, and know that
(35:15):
when Moby Dick was published1851, Pollard would meet Melville.
1852, it's not a success.Melville will die in relative obscurity.
He dies relatively poor. It'snot until after his life that Moby
Dick really gets theappreciation that it comes to get
today.
Yeah, no, it was a differentpart of history that I had never
(35:39):
really been interested in. Butthen when you started kind of learning
about it and talking about it,it was neat just to kind of learn
that that era of history thatwas early 1800s all the way through
the 1900s, when I think thatkind of finally started petering
off a little bit.
So in 1850, right around 1855,patrol petroleum is discovered. Yeah,
(36:01):
petroleum is discovered andthat's really what's going to fuel
the Civil War. And that'sreally when the whaling industry
will bottom out. They've alsooverwheld. There's no more whales.
So I will be. It's. It's goodto say. Humpbacks and sperm whales
have just started to be citednow off of Nantucket. Oh, wow, they
(36:24):
are coming back. America. Alot of Western countries do not whale.
Japan is one of the onlycountries that does still whale.
But it is a controlledindustry and the whale oil is not
needed or used or what we needfor it today. But I know people still
(36:46):
eat it in indigenous areas,especially like Alaska and things
like that. But. But yeah, it'ssuch a unique part of American history.
The crew of the Essex facedunimaginable hardships. Starvation,
(37:10):
dehydration and the hauntingdecision to resort to cannibalism
to survive their ordeal.Ordeal culminating in the loss of
12 out of 20 men, starklycontrasts the romanticized vision
of whaling life. This tragicevent not only left a permanent mark
on maritime history, but alsoinspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
(37:31):
A novel that delves into thecomplexities of human nature and
the perils of obsession. As wereflect on the Essexes story, we
are reminded of the resilienceand sacrifices of those who ventured
into the unknown and theprofound impact their experiences
have had on literature and ourunderstanding of the human spirit.
(37:52):
Melville may have capturedthis complicated era and humanity
on the high seas when hewrote, it is not down on any map.
True places never are. Thishas been Walk With History production.
Talk With History is createdand hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode
(38:15):
researched by Jennifer Benny.Check out the show notes for links
and references mentioned inthis episode. Talk with History is
supported by ourfans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal
thanks go out to thoseproviding funding to help keep us
going. Thank you to DougMcDelivery, Larry Myers, Patrick
Benny, Gale Cooper, ChristyCoates and Calvin Gifford. Make sure
(38:37):
you hit that follow button inthat podcast player and we'll talk
to you next time.
Today we set sail to theisland of Nantucket, once the epicenter
of the global whalingindustry. In the early 19th century,
this small island was home toa fleet of ships that ventured across
the world's oceans in pursuitof the mighty sperm whale, whose
oil illuminated homes andcities around the world. Among these
(00:30):
vessels was the whale shipEssex, which met a tragic fate in
1820 when it turned fromhunter to hunted by a now infamous
white whale. The harrowingordeal of its crew, who faced starvation,
exposure and resorted tocannibalism to survive, captured
the imagination of countlesspeople. People like a Mr. Herman
(00:51):
Melville, who, inspired by theEssexes story and his own experiences
at sea, penned the literarymasterpiece Moby Dick. Join us as
we delve into Nantucket's richwhaling heritage, explore the true
story of the Essex anddiscover how these events left their
own mark on literature and onhistory. Welcome to Talk with History.
(01:24):
I'm your host Scott, here withmy wife and historian Jen.
Hello.
On this podcast we give youinsights to our history Inspired
World Travels YouTube channelJourney and examine history through
deeper conversations with thecurious, the explorers and the history
lovers out there. Alrighty,Jen. So today for those who I think
(01:46):
this will be our first oneback after a little bit of break.
So I hope that our audiencehas been enjoying kind of a look
back on some of our favoriteepisodes from some of more popular
episodes. And we are kind ofgetting into our Northeastern history,
whaling history, Nantucket,all this stuff because you've been
working for American cruiselines now over the summer and you're
(02:07):
kind of wrapping up the summertour season so you'd have some more,
more adventures to kind of togo on up there. But you had the opportunity
to go to Nantucket, which isnot someplace that you and I would,
we would seek it out, but it'dbe hard for us, for us to do. So
let's talk a little bit aboutNantucket and whaling history. This
is such an interesting piece,kind of corner and niche of American
(02:30):
history, especially with, youknow, people will know from the intro
and the podcast title withMoby Dick and Herman Melville. So
let's, let's talk a little bitabout that era, kind of how it came
to be and where it evolved to.
It's so much a part of, it'sweaved into American history. So
much the whaling industry andthen the book. Right. Call Me Ishmael
(02:53):
is probably the most famousfirst line of any piece of literature.
I'd say it's. Personally, Ithink Tale of Two Cities is the best
times are the Worst, worsttimes, the best of times. But I think.
Call me Ishmael. It's.
Call me Ishmael.
It's a, it's. I think it'sbasically a tie.
I love it. So I was inMassachusetts. So when you think
(03:15):
of Massachusetts, this littlesquare on one side state and kind
of like curvy on the otherside because of all these little
islands on the south east partof it. And you get Martha's Vineyard
in Nantucket on these twolittle islands. It's the sixth smallest
state by area in America, butit's the most populous state in New
(03:37):
England. And when you think ofNew England and football, like this
is where everyone goes to seethe games and stuff. Even though
there's a bunch of states thatmake up New England, the Massachusetts
is really what you think of itoriginated in 1630. And then you
got those Cape Islands, MathisVineyard in Nantucket. And my first
(03:58):
like experience ever withNantucket is probably the same as
yours was from the TV show Wings.
Yeah.
Was like, oh, so cool. Where'sNantucket? They fly to Nantucket,
they fly back and forth toBoston. Someday I want to go. So
this was my first, first timeever to Nantucket.
Yeah. And, and for peoplelistening, right, if you're watching,
(04:19):
I'll kind of show a map ofwhere Nantucket is compared to, I'll
call it the mainland of theUnited States. But it's really like
if you start south of Boston,you'll hit Providence. That's kind
of the other Rhode island, youknow, main, main spot. Then from
Providence you start headingdue east, you're going to hit New
Bedford. That's kind of righton the coast. Right on the coast.
(04:40):
A little bit Ish. But thenNantucket is way out there. I didn't
realize how far out off thecoast Nantucket was. That's why this
whaling history is, was kindof born there. It's because it's,
it's about as far as you cango and still kind of be connected
to the continental United States.
Yeah, it's the southeasternmost town in Massachusetts and in
(05:01):
the New England region.Because Nantucket is not only the
name of the island, it's thename of the town.
Yeah.
So it's like Nantucket,Nantucket. And Nantucket is adapted
from an Algonquin name andthat is the indigenous people there
meaning far away island. So itmakes sense. Right. So the whaling
industry, it was bustling inthe 19th century. You have to think
(05:23):
that the America was lit bywhale oil and the Industrial Revolution
was powered by Whale oil. Andwhat does that mean? You needed oil
to lubricate all of thoseindustrial gears. That's what was
used for that at the time.They hadn't. They hadn't discovered
petroleum yet. So everythingis lubricated with whale oil. Everything
(05:46):
is lit with whale oil. They'reusing whale, or they're using the
spermaceti from whale brainsfor candles and makeup.
So soap.
It's soap for everybody in theworld. So this is why this industry
is so huge. And it reallyfinds, like, it' its jewel of the
(06:06):
whaling industry is NantucketIsland. It's just a place that it
really is immersed in that.And that's why Moby Dick will have
a whole chapter to Nantucket.When we talk about the Essex, which
is the ship that's based offof Moby Dick, they're. They're. The
captain is from Nantucket, theship is from Nantucket. You're going
(06:26):
to get men represented fromMartha's Vineyard and New Bedford,
because these are like the bigplaces of wailing. So characters
come from all of thesedifferent places. But in reality,
with the Essex, the threemajor guys or the main characters,
they're Nantucketers. So it'sjust. It's a place that. It's just
synonymous with whaling.
(06:47):
And this wasn't just like acouple decades, this was like over
a hundred years that. Thatwhaling was big there. Like, the
pictures that I could find ofwhalers doing their thing in the.
In that era were from the 1920s.
Oh, yeah, right.
So they were doing that for.For quite some time.
So whaling, I mean, whalingwas really indigenous to the people
there because the way itworked there was. There's a lot of
(07:09):
indigenous stories of a famouschief who. A whale washed up on shore.
The chief was a giant, grabbedthe whale by the tail and banged
it against the side of theisland and showed the people how
to harvest it. And so thiskind of legend of whaling starts
with the people there becausewhales were. This was a very busy
(07:31):
whale area, environmentalhistory. Whales migrated all through
these islands and when theywould die, they would wash up on
shore. And when they washed upon shore, the. The first peoples
there would harvest it.
Yeah.
And so they would cut off theblubber. They would boil the blubber,
boil the blubber into whaleoil, cut off the head, find the spermaceti.
(07:51):
They'd use every bit of it,the whale tongue, a great source
of protein. So then eventuallythey just would get in boats and
just go right off the shore.And that's why harpooners, so the
harpooner is the man on thevery end of the boat who harpoons
the whale in the beginning.And we'll talk about what that process
looks like. The most famousones were from Nantucket because
(08:15):
they just did it right off theisland for so long because the whales
would migrate right there.They would just get in their boats,
row out, harp. Harpoon awhale, you know, and then, you know,
kill the whale and then bringthe whale in to the shore and then
all the people there wouldharvest it. That was very much a
part of their culture for avery long time until America really
(08:37):
had the demand for whale oil.And all of a sudden all of these
whales are harvested in thisnatural area of migration and so
there's no more left. And somuch so that the whaling industry,
when we get to the Essex,there's no more whales left in this
New England area. There's nomore whales really left on the Atlantic
(08:58):
side of America. They have togo around South America to the Pacific
to whale because it's been soover harvest.
Yeah, that was one thing Ididn't, I don't think I ever really
realized until you made thevideo and then I, I made it yesterday.
We just recently published itwas. That's the reason that, you
(09:19):
know, the Essex was on theother side of, of the Americas was
because they had essentiallylike hunted out all the whales in
the Atlantic.
I mean, so when you think ofwhaling, they're going after four
basic whales. They're goingafter the humpback, the fin, the
right whale, and of course thesperm whale. And the sperm whale
is the most prized whalebecause the sperm whale, the Pinocchio
(09:39):
whale has the big head. Andwith the big head comes a big brain,
which comes all thatspermaceti whales don't have that.
They're kind of flat there.And so everyone's looking for a sperm
whale. And even Moby Dick inthe book is a sperm whale. Now these
whales are so over hunted andharvested, they almost hunt them
(10:02):
all to extinction.
Wow.
That's how bad it gets becausethey are just hunting these whales.
And that's why when we talkabout the Essex, we talk about a
whale fighting back is whalesare starting. They're not, they're
not unintelligent animals.Right. You would think they are the
biggest animal, the, thelargest animals. Their brains are
(10:22):
relatively large as well. Theyunderstand what's happening by this
point, by this hundred yearsof them and probably watching, because
they travel in pods, watchingpieces of their pods being plucked
away, that they realize what's happening.
So so, so tell me a little bitabout the Essex and kind of the main
(10:42):
characters there. And thenwas, was the Essex actually like,
I know in Moby Dick, it's thewhite whale. Was that true to life
as well for the Essex story?
So there was a white whale. Solet me, let's talk a little bit about
how whaling works and thenwe'll go into the Essex. But yes,
what was found, especially nowthat we don't whale like we used
(11:04):
to, when whales get very old,70, 80 years old, they turn white.
Oh, okay.
So what probably happened inMoby Dick, it's an albino whale,
which could very much happen.There was a whale that people did
report seeing, but it couldmost more likely was a whale that
(11:24):
had survived.
The whaling industry had justbeen around.
For so long that it had turnedwhite because of its age. And that
is what naturally happens now,since the whaling industry is not
anything near what it used tobe. But let me talk, I just want
to talk a little bit about howwhaling works because people get
confused sometimes. Like, howis this ship taking these huge whales?
(11:46):
Like, how are they gettingthese huge whales to the ship and
then harvesting them? So awhaling ship usually has five whaling
boats. So remember, a boatgoes on a ship and, and in the navy,
we also like to refer tosubmarines as boats. So you have
five whaling boats. And in, ona whaling ship you get two people
(12:10):
who go into the crow's nest,which is on the largest mass, which
is usually center mast, andthey're watching for the blowhole
of a whale, right? They'rewatching for that water spout. And
when they see it, it's justlike a movie, like there she blows.
Right? And so they will turnthe ship towards that because it's
usually a pod. Whales don'ttravel alone, so they usually go
(12:32):
toward that area. And the menget into the whaling boats. Usually
three will go out and theyhave five in case something happens.
And a team of six would be inthe whaling boat. So you have two
people ro. We have four peoplerowing the boat, one person in the
back working the rudder andthe harpooner out in front. And think
of a harpoon as this hugejavelin of metal, right, With a elaborate
(12:57):
type of hook on it. And theycame up with all these different
kind of designs and things.And, and a whaling ship would carry
like 150 harpoons, right?Because you never know what's going
to happen.
Well, and I think you evenmentioned it in the video too, is
a lot of times, once theystart harpooning Right. And trying
to wear it down, it's kind oflike fishing, right? You hook the
fish and if, especially ifit's a bigger fish, you kind of let
(13:18):
it go out and reel it back in.And let it go out and reel it back
in, wear it down to when youcan finally get to it. But there
was times, I think you say itin the video, that the whales would
dive and they'd have to cutthe line.
So there's three things thatcan happen. So they go out to the
whale, they stop kind ofrowing as they get close, because
the whale can hear, and theyget as close as they can. And that's
why the harpooner, it's such aspecialized skill because they are
(13:41):
throwing that harpoon, they'renot getting real close to the whale
because the whale can hearthem. So it's like a javelin thrower,
right? And he's holding thisbig piece of metal that's attached
to a rope that's attached tothe boat. So he's trying to get this,
this javelin, this harpooninto a big chunk of the whale. And
the whale can do three things.It can dive, and if it dives, you
(14:04):
better cut that line as quickas you can. That's how you lose a
harpoon. But if you don't,you're all going down.
So it's just. It's going topull the boat down.
It's going to pull the boatdown. It's strong enough to pull
you all down. It can turn backon you and attack your boat, which
is also when you're going tocut the line and try to get away.
There are instances of whalejaws crunching boats.
Wow.
Right, so or it can run, andthat's what you want it to do. It's
(14:27):
called the Nantucket SleighRide. You want the whale to stay
on the surface and. And runand try to get away. And the six
men in the boat are going tohold on and it's going to go back
and forth. And they're tryingto tire out the whale. And you can
kind of think almost likeJaws, a little foreshadowing here
with the barrels. Right.They're trying to make the. The shark
(14:48):
tired. They're trying to getthe whale tired. Once it gets tired
and it runs out of gas and itneeds to catch its breath. It's a
mammal. It has to come up andbreathe. They pull in closer to it,
and by doing that, then theyget spears out and every man on the
boat will try to spear thewhale in its lungs on the side and
(15:09):
on the back, and they'rewatching for blood to come out of
the blow hole. Once bloodcomes out of the blow hole, they
say chimneys of fire, whichmeans the whale is going to die.
Anytime you get blood in your lungs.
Man, I, I can't imagine, likewatching or participating in something
like that. How. Like justphysically demanding and exhausting
(15:29):
and brutal and. I mean, it'sjust all the things dirty. I mean,
dirty and not just. Now weknow like whaling is, is. I think
it's illegal in lots ofplaces, if not most of the world.
But think about what they weredoing. These guys are rowing boats
out there and smack in themiddle of the ocean. Just like, like,
(15:51):
it's crazy to me to thinkabout these guys doing this.
Yeah, the brute strength.
Yeah.
And when, when I say chimneysof fire in the blood's shooting up,
where do you think thatblood's going?
Yeah, I mean, they're pullingthemselves up, up to the whale.
It's all over you. Right. Likeyou're getting hit with all of ocean
water and the blood and like.So it's just one of these, like.
It's such a brutal thing todo, but it was so lucrative and for
(16:15):
a sailor's life. We'll talkabout this with the Essex. And it
really was a balance there.You could be African American, you
could be white, you could befrom different places and you would
all be making the same money.So it's one of those, one of those
jobs that everyone was treatedequally and you really were treated
on your skill level. So.
(16:36):
So when they, they kill it,right? There's. There's the blood
and all of a sudden, like. Soare they. Then kind of like. Is the,
the larger whaling ship comingup closer? So you're going to fall
it over?
Yes. So you're going to waitfor the whale to die. It's called
the flurry. So once you get itin the lungs and it's these chimneys
of fire, you don't have to doanything else. The whale is going
(16:57):
to kind of swim in circles.It's going to go on its side and
flutter its tail. It's calledthe flurry. It's basically the end
of its life. Right. It'sgasping for air and then it'll die.
And then. Yes, the ship comesto you. You pull it to the ship and
this is when the real workbegins. This is why it's such an
exhausting job. So they'llbring it to the right side of the
(17:18):
ship and they'll chain it upto the side of the ship. And usually
the men would go to sleepbecause they're exhausted.
So, so they're harvesting itessentially like as it's strapped
to the side of the ship.They're not pulling this massive
sperm whale on, onto the deck.So they're just harvesting on the
side, hanging off the side ofthe ship.
Yeah.
And then they start doing allthis stuff.
Think of it's like 50 tons.
(17:39):
Wow.
50 ton whale. So what happensnow is it's 12 hours on, 12 hours
off. That's why they're,they're going to be working in two
shifts and they start toharvest this whale, which is basically
cutting symmetrical, basicallyrows of blubber off the side of the
whale. And they do have whatthey call tri works, which are really
(18:02):
just like a big metal ironcauldrons right in the middle of
the ship and they put in coalsunderneath it and they're cooking
this blubber into oil. And ona ship, which I always think is hilarious,
because if you know anythingabout being on a ship and the rocking
with this super, super hotboiling oil, like you're setting
yourself up for disaster here.But the deck would get super slippery
(18:26):
because there's oil all overthe deck. This is where you have
to be watching out for peoplefalling overboard. Because you know
what else follows a deadwhale? Oh yeah, sharks.
Sure.
So the shark's waiting for it.They're waiting for the.
And I think even when I foundpictures, when I was making the video
of a lot of these werepaintings, right? You know, obviously
of the 1800s because therewasn't any photography. But they
would paint the sharks in thewater, follow following the ship
(18:50):
with the whale like, you know,strapped to the side of the ship.
And they would paint thesharks in the water because they're
out there, that's chum for them.
So they're waiting for it. Soif you fall overboard, you don't
want to be overboard with abunch of sharks waiting in a bunch
of blood. So it's 12 hours on,12 hours off. As they're harvesting
the swell, which takes aboutthree days. It's exhausting. They're
boiling the blubber to makeoil and they're putting all the oil
(19:12):
into the boat barrels. Right.And so all the barrels go down below
into the storage. And this ishow you're getting all of this oil.
Then usually the head theysever, they put it on the front of
the ship. They usually make abig hole in the brain. And the cabin
boy, his lucky job is to belowered down into the Brain with
a bucket and he gets to bucketout the spermaceti and it smells
(19:37):
horrendous. People say youcould smell a whaling ship before
you could see it.
Wow.
Like it's just horrid. And sothis process takes about two or three
days. Men are exhausted.They're putting all the, the oil
into the barrels. They gotabout 10 barrels per whale. And they
(19:57):
clean the deck, right. Theygot to get all that oil off the deck,
clean the deck. They're goingto let the whale carcass go to the
sharks and they start thewhole process again.
That's, that's wild. So that'swhat the Essex was sailing around.
Did they sail all the wayaround the southern tip of South
America to get up to thePacific side?
Yes. So they had alreadysailed all the way and they had already
(20:19):
gotten like 10 whales. Theyhad about a hundred barrels. Usually
you have about 150, 120 coming back.
So they were almost done.
They were almost done. Right.They had left on August 12, 1819.
They encountered the whaleNovember 20, 1820. So they've been
(20:40):
gone now for about a littleover a year. A year and a couple
months. A whaling excursion,because it had to take you now to
the Pacific, was at least twoyears. And because of that you will
get instances of wives andchildren going with a whaling captain
because sometimes you didn'twant to be without them. So it's
not as rare as people thinkfor a woman to be on a ship. Sometimes
(21:03):
wives and children did go, butsometimes they didn't go. And when
I talk a lot about Nantucket,I want people to remember when the
men were gone because this wasa male dominated industry and they
were wailing like crazy to, tolight America. Women ran the island.
So you get a lot of likewomen's voting, women saying, my
husband and I vote this. Andthey were taking care of commerce,
(21:25):
they were taking care offixing houses and doing things, schools
like. It was a lot of womenempowerment there in Nantucket. And
you're going to see thatthrough history where New England
is going to be the start ofthe temperance movement. You're going
to get a lot of women'sstarting the right to vote in that
area because of all of thisinformal power that women have through
(21:46):
whaling. It kind of startsthis whole idea that women are taking
control of their power. So theEssex has gotten about 10 whales.
They are on the other side ofSouth America, on the Pacific side.
They're in the Galapagos area.And they go, they see a whale and
they go out after it. It's asperm whale. And the whale doubles
(22:10):
back on the ship and I thinkjust rams the ship twice. This is
November 20th. And breaks theEssex in half.
Just. And just. Just fromhitting it twice, even twice with
its head. Wow. And it's crazy.
I know. And these men arelike, oh, my gosh. So they're losing
all their oil. They lost.They. They lost the whole ship. And
they only at the time hadthree whaling boats.
(22:33):
Like I said, they essentiallyturn into, like, lifeboats.
Yeah, like I said, usuallywith five. They had lost two already
in that year that had justbeen destroyed. Like I said, a whale
had dove or had come back. Andso. So you lose ships in that way,
boats in that way. So theyonly had three. So when the. The
whale hits the Essex, smashesit in half, it sings. The. The 18
(22:57):
men, the 20 men go into thethree boats. And so you get Captain
Pollard. So he's fromNantucket, he's going to take control
of one boat. You have thefirst. First mate, Owen Chase, he's
also from Nantucket, he goesinto the second boat. And the second
mate, Matthew Joy, goes intothe third boat. I try to tell people
it's kind of like co exo opso.Like it's your three highest people.
(23:22):
And cabin boy goes with thefirst mate. So cabin boy goes with
the xo. And Captain Pollardalso has his cousin with him from
Nantucket. His cousin's only15 years old. And. And he promises
his cousin's mother, right,that he'll take care of him and stuff.
So it's. You can feel likeyou're setting yourself up for disaster
here.
So they're. They're kind of.They jump into the three boats, they
(23:45):
ration the food and rationeverything, and then they're basically
trying to find. I assumethey're trying to find the next closest
land where they can get on land.
So they give each other, liketwo casts, one barrel of water, one
box of hardtack. Hardtack wasthat cracker not realizing hard.
The hardtack everybody got hadbeen drenched in salt water. Salt
(24:08):
water dried. And they each gettwo turtles, so they eat the turtles
too. And they each get apistol. And so they make kind of
like makeshift masts, right?They put up these fake masks and
try to sail. They're trying tosail these boats because these boats
don't have. Have any sailingcapability of robots. Yeah, Right.
And so the closest islands tothem, they're right on the other
(24:31):
side of the Galapagos whenthis happens. The Marques Islands
and the Society Islands arethe closest islands to them, and
that's where the current wouldpush them. But they were concerned
that those islands hadcannibals. Oh, yeah, right. And in
reality, those islands hadalready been visited by missionaries
and there was no cannibalismgoing on there. They would have been
fine.
So if they had just stoppedthere, they'd. They'd been fine.
(24:53):
They would have been fine. Butthey didn't do that. So it's not
until December 20th, so that'sabout a month later that they make
Henderson Island.
So they've been in this littleboat for a month plus. Plus a little
over a month, and they'vealready hardtack and basically just
water.
(25:14):
And starvation is hit.
Oh, my gosh.
And Henderson Island, I thinkthey use the word island very loosely
here. It's basically like acoral reef that is kind of sustained
some land. So there's somefresh water there, there's some birds
there, there's some eggsthere. But after a week, these men
have eaten it all. Eat it all.They've depleted it, sure. So on
(25:37):
December 26, that's like noteven a week later, they decide that
they would starve if theystay. So they're gonna go. They're
gonna venture out in thesethree boats again. They leave three
men behind on HendersonIsland. The three men they leave
behind, William Wright, SethWeeks and Thomas Chapel, they're
the only white members of thecrew who are not native of Nantucket.
(25:59):
So they're. They're just notcapable sailors when you think about
it. Right. People were verymuch aware of where you were from
and how good you were. Yeah,Right. And so they knew that these
men would not be the bestsailors. They're not going to be
the best at handling this longexcursion. So. And I think one is
pretty sick. And so theydecide to stay on Henderson island
(26:20):
and just try their luck withrainfall and what other birds kind
of land there.
And I think those. Those threeactually end up surviving.
They end up surviving. Pollardtells them, when I get rescued, I'll
send a ship back for you. AndPollard actually does that. And that's
why they. All three of themwill survive.
That's wild.
So the other three ships go.In the beginning, some men will die
(26:44):
from exposure from sicknessand they give them burials at sea.
But when they start to realizethat they've been out there for a
while, they. And they have nofood, they start to resort to cannibalism.
And so it's going to be onPollard's boat where his cousin is
on the boat. They draw lotsand his cousin draws the lot. And
(27:05):
Pollard will argue with him.Remember, he promised his mother
I would bring him back. Thatit's my job. I'm the captain. I'm
gonna die. And his cousingives him a message to give his mother,
takes the gun and shootshimself before he even. Paula, even
has a chance. Like he. He justwants to do his duty. And that's
kind of what he says. AndPollard will never recover from this.
And this is why, even when hemeets Herman Melville, they only
(27:28):
talk for a couple minutes.Because Pollard really. This will
be some ptsd. Never has children.
I can't even imagine.
Right.
Like coming out of this and,and trying to be normal.
Yeah. So the first ship that'srescued will be the first mate ship.
February 18th. So think abouttwo months after they've left Henderson
Island, Lawrence, who wassteering Chase's Borough, spots a.
(27:52):
A sail. And they managed tocatch up with the vessel. It turns
out to be the British shipIndian. And so they have three men
still alive on their boat.You're going to have Owen Chase,
the cabin boy, and one of theharpooners has survived. So.
And I believe Owen Chase inthe movie Heart of the Sea, that
is Chris Hemsworth. ChrisHemsworth, right. The. You know,
(28:12):
you would know him from themovie Thor. Yeah, right. He's Thor.
But he plays the first mate.
It's. Yeah, Exo.
He play. He plays the firstmate who survives. And I think in
that movie the story is toldby, by him or like his, his children
or something like that.
Yeah. So in the movie it's notaccurate. It's the cat, it's the.
(28:32):
It's the cabin boy who hasgrown old, talks to Herman Melville
one on one. That neverhappened. Herman Melville. The only
person of the Essex thatHerman Melville ever talked to is
Pollard. For 10 minutes. We'lltalk about that On Nantucket after
he wrote the book. Book'salready been published. When he meets
him, the way Herman Melvillecomes in contact with this story
(28:56):
is he meets Owen Chase's son.
Okay.
And Owen Chase's son, becauseHerman Melville's trying to whale.
He takes a whaling ship fromNew Bedford and he's trying his best
to wail and he hates it. Hethinks it's horrible. So he basically
ditches it in Hawaii, which,you know, awol. And then he comes
(29:17):
into contact with Owen Chase'sson and he tells him this whole story
about his father and theEssex. And that's when Herman Melville
gets like, really? Yes. I canSee how that would be because I'm
miserable. So I'm gonna writea book about being miserable. And
really when you talk aboutMoby Dick, I always remind people
this is really a story of men,a man's obsession with revenge. And
(29:42):
it's really man against man.And they say Herman Melville had
a very precarious anddifficult relationship with the captain
of the whaling ship he was on.And so it's almost like he's writing
about him and thatrelationship and Pollard has nothing
to do with Ahab. When you seePollard and Ahab's, both of their.
(30:02):
The personalities arecompletely different and so. But
he's using the Essex of thebeing sunk by the whale as the backstory
for Moby Dick. And thenPollard's rescued on February 23rd.
So about five days after that,again, 93 days after the sinking,
(30:22):
Pollard is there with just oneother person, Ramsdale. And they
are spotted by the whale shipDolphine. And it is, if you read
the account, when they cameupon them, I can't even. They. They
didn't single for the ship oranything because the two men are
on opposite sides of the boatsucking on the bones of the men.
(30:44):
And when they came upon them,they weren't even sure who they were,
what they. They weren't evensure what was going on. And the only
way they got them onto theboat and the only way they could
get them to let go of thebones was to give them other fresh
food. They weren't even like they're.
They're so traumatized. So traumatized.
So this is Paul, it's thecaptain. Right. So they're basically
(31:07):
have become animals. And thenPollard will say there's three men
on Henderson Island. So inApril. So they, they rescued the
end of February. So In Aprilof 1921, the three men are rescued
from Henderson Island. Sothat's the story of man.
That's brutal. Now they getback and you had had the chance to
(31:29):
go, you know, on Nantucketthey have the Whaling Museum. So
a lot of this stuff, you know,you were able to see and they. There's
kind of displays and all thisstuff. Now you weren't able to take
video, but you take somepictures. Their website's pretty
good if you end up out there.I think you even said in the video
it's probably one of thebusier museums, if not the busiest
because that's kind of rightup front where people come in. And
it, from what it looked like,it gave you a really good overview
(31:52):
of kind of all the historythere in Nantucket and all that stuff.
So it was. It was pretty neat.
Yeah. So if you go to thatrailing museum in Nantucket, they're
going to tell you the story ofthe Essex, right. They have a. The
back of the ship is recreated.They're going to tell you the story
of the Essex, because theEssex was a Nantucket ship. And if
you go there, you can go towhere Pollard lives. So Pollard will
(32:16):
make it back to Nantucket, sowill Owen Chase, so will Benjamin
Lawrence. And BenjaminLawrence was on Owen Chase's ship.
He was the harpooner who wasrescued. And Benjamin Lawrence had
the only artifact, which was apiece of twine he kept playing with
on the ship. And that piece oftwine is in the Nantucket museum.
(32:41):
And we show pictures of it inthe video.
Super cool to see. Pollardwould get one other whaling ship.
After that, the two brothers.And the two brothers will sink off
the coast of Hawaii. Afterthat, he's never given another ship.
He goes, returns to Nantucket,he becomes a night watchman, which
is basically like securityguard. Security guard, nothing. And
(33:02):
people would just see the oldcaptain walk in the streets at night.
And this is when HermanMelville kind of meets him. And so
I take you to. Herman Melvillewill stay in a boarding house there.
And it kind of looks on toPollard's house. He waits to see
Pollard come out of his house.He goes down, meets him in the street,
talks to him for 10 minutes.Melville will say that meeting had
(33:27):
the most profound effect onhis life. He said he was one of the
most prestigious, amazing menhe's ever met. And it will. He even
writes a whole poem about it.Pollard never talks about that meeting.
And again, Pollard neverreally talks about the sinking. I
take you to his grave. He isin an unmarked grave in Nantucket
(33:47):
Cemetery. What's also kind ofneat about all of this is I take
you to where Owen Chase ishome was. That's the first mate.
That's Chris Hemsworth. Laterin his life, he loses his mind.
Yeah.
He resorts to living in hisattic and hoarding food in his attic.
(34:08):
And I think they kind ofportray that in the movie, right?
Yeah.
And they think he did thatbecause of the, you know, Food. No
food.
The trauma that he went through.
The trauma that he's stuck on a.
Lifeboat for three months.
Yeah.
With nothing.
And then the other person whotalks about it, it will be the cabin
boy, Thomas Nickerson. Hewrites a tale about this that is
also in the movie, who HermanMelville is supposed to have met,
(34:31):
but in reality, no HermanMelville met no other members of
the Essex besides Pollard.There was a whale called Mocha Dick.
And it's so funny, so funny tosay Mocha Dick Dick when you think
of Moby Dick or Mocha Dick.Mocha Dick is who. Moby Dick is based
off of this albino whale thatwas notorious. People had seen it
(34:55):
off the coast of SouthAmerica. It's kind of like another
name for John Jim Henry. It'sa common male name, John Doe. Yeah.
So that's why they called itMoby Dick. Mocha Dick. It's like
it's just this common male'sname. That's where that comes from.
But, yeah, so that's, that'sthat story. And, and, and know that
(35:15):
when Moby Dick was published1851, Pollard would meet Melville.
1852, it's not a success.Melville will die in relative obscurity.
He dies relatively poor. It'snot until after his life that Moby
Dick really gets theappreciation that it comes to get
today.
Yeah, no, it was a differentpart of history that I had never
(35:39):
really been interested in. Butthen when you started kind of learning
about it and talking about it,it was neat just to kind of learn
that that era of history thatwas early 1800s all the way through
the 1900s, when I think thatkind of finally started petering
off a little bit.
So in 1850, right around 1855,patrol petroleum is discovered. Yeah,
(36:01):
petroleum is discovered andthat's really what's going to fuel
the Civil War. And that'sreally when the whaling industry
will bottom out. They've alsooverwheld. There's no more whales.
So I will be. It's. It's goodto say. Humpbacks and sperm whales
have just started to be citednow off of Nantucket. Oh, wow, they
(36:24):
are coming back. America. Alot of Western countries do not whale.
Japan is one of the onlycountries that does still whale.
But it is a controlledindustry and the whale oil is not
needed or used or what we needfor it today. But I know people still
(36:46):
eat it in indigenous areas,especially like Alaska and things
like that. But. But yeah, it'ssuch a unique part of American history.
The crew of the Essex facedunimaginable hardships. Starvation,
(37:10):
dehydration and the hauntingdecision to resort to cannibalism
to survive their ordeal.Ordeal culminating in the loss of
12 out of 20 men, starklycontrasts the romanticized vision
of whaling life. This tragicevent not only left a permanent mark
on maritime history, but alsoinspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
(37:31):
A novel that delves into thecomplexities of human nature and
the perils of obsession. As wereflect on the Essexes story, we
are reminded of the resilienceand sacrifices of those who ventured
into the unknown and theprofound impact their experiences
have had on literature and ourunderstanding of the human spirit.
(37:52):
Melville may have capturedthis complicated era and humanity
on the high seas when hewrote, it is not down on any map.
True places never are. Thishas been Walk With History production.
Talk With History is createdand hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode
(38:15):
researched by Jennifer Benny.Check out the show notes for links
and references mentioned inthis episode. Talk with History is
supported by ourfans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal
thanks go out to thoseproviding funding to help keep us
going. Thank you to DougMcDelivery, Larry Myers, Patrick
Benny, Gale Cooper, ChristyCoates and Calvin Gifford. Make sure
(38:37):
you hit that follow button inthat podcast player and we'll talk
to you next time.
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