01 - Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex by Owen Chase

Owen Chase (October 7, 1797 – March 7, 1869) served as the First Mate of the ill-fated whale ship Essex, which met a tragic fate when it was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale on October 28, 1820. In the aftermath, Chase penned the gripping account titled Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, published in 1821. This harrowing tale not only chronicles the desperate survival of the crew but also served as a profound inspiration for Herman Melvilles iconic novel, Moby-Dick. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section one of the Shipwreck of the whale ship Essex
by Owen Chase. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Phil
Schamp narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of

(00:22):
the whale ship Essex of Nantucket, which was attacked and
finally destroyed by a large spermaceti whale in the Pacific Ocean,
with an account of the unparalleled sufferings of the captain
and crew during a space of ninety three days at
sea in open boats in the years eighteen nineteen and
eighteen twenty, by Owen Chase of Nantucket, first mate of

(00:45):
said vessel. To the reader, I am aware that the
public mind has been already nearly sated with the private
stories of individuals, many of whom had few, if any
claims to public attention, and the injuries which have resulted
from the promligation of fictitious histories and in many instances

(01:06):
of journals entirely fabricated for the purpose, has had the
effect to lessen the public interest in works of this description,
and very much to undervalue the general cause of truth.
It is, however, not the less important and necessary that
narratives should continue to be furnished that have their foundations
in fact, and the subject of which embraces new and

(01:29):
interesting matter, in any department of the arts or sciences.
When the motive is worthy, the subject in style, interesting,
affording instruction, exciting a proper sympathy, and with all disclosing
new and astonishing traits of human character, this kind of
information becomes of great value to the philanthropist and philosopher,

(01:49):
and is fully deserving of attention from every description of
readers on the subject of the facts contained in this
little volume. They are neither so extravagant as to require
the exercise of any great credulity to believe, nor I
trust so unimportant or uninteresting as to forbid an attentive perusal.

(02:10):
It was my misfortune to be a considerable, if not
a principal, sufferer, in the dreadful catastrophe that befell us,
and in it I not only lost all the little
I had ventured, but my situation and the prospects of
bettering it, that at one time seemed to smile upon me,
were all in one short moment, destroyed with it the

(02:30):
hope of obtaining something of remuneration by giving a short
history of my sufferings to the world. Must therefore constitute
my claim to public attention. End of Section one.