August 19, 2025 • 14 mins
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)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section ten of the Shipwreck of the whale ship Essex
by Owen Chase. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Recording by Phil Schamp, Chapter three, Part seven, January twenty fifth,
to the conclusion, the three following days, the twenty fifth,
twenty sixth, and twenty seventh, were not distinguished by any
(00:24):
particular circumstances. The wind still prevailed to the eastward, and
by its ubduracy almost tore the very hopes of our
hearts away. It was impossible to silence the rebellious repinings
of our nature at witnessing such a succession of hard
fortune against us. It was our cruel lot not to
(00:45):
have had one bright anticipation realized, not one wish of
our thirsting souls gratified. We had, at the end of
these three days, been urged to the southward as far
as latitude thirty six degrees, into a chilly region where
rains and squalls prevailed, and we now calculated to tack
(01:06):
and stand back to the northward. After much labor, we
got our boat about, and so great was the fatigue
attending this small exertion of our bodies, that we all
gave up for a moment, and abandoned her to our
own course. Not one of us had now strength sufficient
to steer, or indeed to make one single effort towards
(01:26):
getting the sails properly trimmed to enable us to make
any headway. After an hour or two of relaxation, during
which the horrors of our situation came upon us with
a despairing force and effect, we made a sudden effort
and got our sails into such a disposition as that
the boat would steer herself, And we then drew ourselves down,
(01:49):
awaiting the issue of time to bring us relief or
to take us from the scene of our troubles. We
could now do nothing more. Strength and spirits were totally gone,
and what indeed could have been the narrow hopes that
in our situation then bound us to life. January twenty eighth,
Our spirits this morning were hardly sufficient to allow our
(02:12):
enjoying a change of the wind, which took place to
the westward. It had nearly become indifferent to us from
what quarter it blew. Nothing but the slight chance of
meeting with a vessel remained to us. Now. It was
this narrow comfort alone that prevented me from lying down
at once to die. But fourteen days stinted allowance of
(02:33):
provisions remained, and it was absolutely necessary to increase the
quantity to enable us to live five days longer. We
therefore partook of it as pinching necessity demanded, and gave
ourselves wholly up to the guidance and disposal of our creator.
The twenty ninth and thirtieth of January, the wind continued west,
(02:56):
and we made considerable progress until the thirty first, when
it again came ahead and prostrated all our hopes. On
the first of February it changed again to the westward,
and on the second and third blew to the eastward,
and we had it light and variable until the eighth
of February. Our sufferings were now drawing to a close.
(03:18):
A terrible death appeared shortly to await us. Hunger became
violent and outrageous, and we prepared for a speedy release
from our troubles. Our speech and reason were both considerably impaired,
and we were reduced to be at this time certainly
the most helpless and wretched of the whole human race.
(03:39):
Isaac Cole, one of our crew, had the day before
this in a fit of despair, thrown himself down in
the boat, and was determined there calmly to wait for death.
It was obvious that he had no chance. All was dark,
he said in his mind, not a single ray of
hope was left for him to dwell upon. And it
(03:59):
was falling in madness to be struggling against what appeared
so palpably to be our fixed and settled destiny. I
remonstrated with him as effectually as the weakness of both
my body and understanding would allow of, And what I
said appeared for a moment to have a considerable effect.
He made a powerful and sudden effort, half rose up,
(04:22):
crawled forward and hoisted the jib, and firmly and loudly
cried that he would not give up, that he would
live as long as the rest of us. But alas
this effort was but the hectic fever of the moment,
and he shortly again relapsed into a state of melancholy
and despair. This day his reason was attacked, and he became,
(04:43):
about nine o'clock in the morning, a most miserable spectacle
of madness. He spoke incoherently about everything, calling loudly for
a napkin and water, and then lying stupidly and senselessly
down in the boat again, and would close his hollow
eyes as if in death. About ten o'clock we suddenly
(05:04):
perceived that he became speechless. We got him as well
as we were able upon a board placed on one
of the seats of the boat, and covered him up
with some old clothes, left him to his fate. He
lay in the greatest pain and apparent misery, groaning piteously,
until four o'clock, when he died in the most horrid
(05:25):
and frightful convulsions I ever witnessed. We kept his corpse
all night, and in the morning my two companions began,
as of course, to make preparations to dispose of it
in the sea, when after reflecting on the subject all night,
I addressed them on the painful subject of keeping the
body for food. Our provisions could not possibly last beyond
(05:47):
three days, within which time it was not in any
degree probable that we should find relief from our present sufferings,
and that hunger would at last drive us to the
necessity of casting lots. It was, without any objection agreed to,
and we set to work as fast as we were
able to prepare it so as to prevent it spoiling.
(06:08):
We separated his limbs from his body and cut all
the flesh from the bones, after which we opened the body,
took out the heart, and then closed it again, sewed
it up as decently as we could, and committed it
to the sea. We now first commenced to satisfy the
immediate cravings of nature from the heart, which we eagerly devoured,
(06:31):
and then eat sparingly of a few pieces of the flesh,
after which we hung up the remainder, cut in thin
strips about the boat to dry in the sun. We
made a fire and roasted some of it to serve
us during the day. In this manner did we dispose
of our fellow sufferer, the painful recollection of which brings
(06:52):
to mind at this moment some of the most disagreeable
and revolting ideas that it is capable of conceding. We
knew not then to whose lot it would fall next,
either to die or be shot and eaten like the
poor wretch we had just dispatched. Humanity must shudder at
the dreadful recital. I have no language to paint the
(07:15):
anguish of our souls in this dreadful dilemma. The next morning,
the tenth of February, we found that the flesh had
become tainted and had turned of a greenish color, upon
which we concluded to make a fire and cook it
at once to prevent its becoming so putrid not to
be eaten at all. We accordingly did so, and by
(07:36):
that means preserved it for six or seven days longer.
Our bread during the time remained untouched, as that would
not be liable to spoil. We placed it carefully aside
for the last moments of our trial. About three o'clock
this afternoon, a strong breeze set in from the northwest,
and we made very good progress, considering that we were
(07:59):
compared held to steer the boat by management of the
sails alone. This wind continued until the thirteenth, when it
changed again ahead. We contrived to keep soul and body
together by sparingly partaking of our flesh, cut up in
small pieces and eaten with salt water. By the fourteenth
(08:20):
our bodies became so far recruited as to enable us
to make a few attempts at guiding our boat again
with the ore. By each taking his turn, we managed
to effect it, and to make a tolerable good course.
On the fifteenth, our flesh was all consumed, and we
were driven to the last morsel of bread, consisting of
(08:40):
two cakes. Our limbs had for the last two days
swelled very much and now began to paint us most excessively.
We were still, as near as we could judge, three
hundred miles from land, and but three days of our
allowance on hand. The hope of a continuation of the wind,
(09:01):
which came out at west this morning, was the only
comfort and solace that remained to us. So strong had
our desires at last reached in this respect, that a
high fever had set in in our veins, and a
longing that nothing but its continuation could satisfy matters were
now with us at their height. All hope was cast
(09:22):
upon the breeze, and we tremblingly and fearfully awaited its
progress and the dreadful development of our destiny. On the sixteenth,
at night, full of the horrible reflections of our situation,
and panting with weakness, I laid down to sleep, almost
indifferent whether I should ever see the light again. I
(09:44):
had not lain long before I dreamt I saw a
ship at some distance off from us, and strained every
nerve to get to her, but could not. I awoke,
almost overpowered with the frenzy I had caught in my slumbers,
and stung with the cruelty of a diseased and disappointed imagination.
(10:04):
On the seventeenth, in the afternoon, a heavy cloud appeared
to be settling down in an east by north direction
from us, which in my view indicated the vicinity of
some land, which I took for the island of Massafuera.
I concluded it could be no other, and immediately upon
this reflection the life blood began to flow again briskly
(10:26):
in my veins. I told my companions that I was
well convinced it was land, and if so, in all probability,
we should reach it before two days more. My words
appeared to comfort them much, and by repeated assurances of
the favorable appearance of things, their spirits acquired even a
degree of elasticity that was truly astonishing. The dark features
(10:51):
of our distress began now to diminish a little, and
the countenance, even amid the glooming bodings of a hard lot,
to assume a much fresher hue. We directed our course
for the cloud, and our progress that night was extremely good.
The next morning, before daylight, Thomas Nicholson, a boy of
about seventeen years of age, one of my two companions
(11:15):
who had thus far survived with me, after having bailed
the boat, laid down, drew a piece of canvas over him,
and cried out that he then wished to die. Immediately
I saw that he had given up, and I attempted
to speak a few words of comfort and encouragement to him,
and endeavored to persuade him that it was a great
(11:35):
weakness and even wickedness to abandon a reliance upon the Almighty,
while the least hope and a breath of life remained.
But he felt unwilling to listen to any of the
consolatory suggestions which I made to him, And notwithstanding the
extreme probability which I stated there was of our gaining
the land before the end of two days more, he
(11:57):
insisted upon laying down and giving himself up to despair.
A fixed look of settled and forsaken despondency came over
his face. He lay for some time silent, sullen, and sorrowful,
and I felt at once satisfied that the coldness of
death was fast gathering upon him. There was a sudden
(12:17):
and unaccountable earnestness in his manner that alarmed me and
made me fear that I myself might unexpectedly be overtaken
by a like weakness or dizziness of nature that would
berieve me at once of both reason and life. But
Providence willed it otherwise. At about seven o'clock this morning,
while I was lying asleep, my companion, who was steering,
(12:41):
suddenly and loudly called out, there's a sale. I know
not what was the first movement I made upon hearing
such an unexpected cry. The earliest of my recollections are
that immediately I stood up, gazing in a state of
abstraction and ecstasy, upon the blessed vision of a vessel
about seven miles off from us. She was standing in
(13:05):
the same direction with us, and the only sensation I
felt at the Here this copy of Chase's book ends,
but handwritten comments by Herman Melville, bound with this copy conclude,
thus I cannot tell exactly how many pages the complete
narrative contains, but at any rate, very little remains to
(13:27):
be related. The boat was picked up by the ship
and the two fellows were landed in Chile and in
time sailed for home. Owen Chase returned to his business
of whaling, and in some time became a captain, as
related in the beginning end of section ten end of
(13:48):
a narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of
the whale ship Essex of Nantucket, which was attacked and
finally destroyed by a large spermaceti whale in the Pacifit Ocean,
with an account of the unparalleled sufferings of the captain
and crew during a space of ninety three days at
(14:08):
sea in open boats in the years eighteen nineteen and
eighteen twenty
Section ten of the Shipwreck of the whale ship Essex
by Owen Chase. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Recording by Phil Schamp, Chapter three, Part seven, January twenty fifth,
to the conclusion, the three following days, the twenty fifth,
twenty sixth, and twenty seventh, were not distinguished by any
(00:24):
particular circumstances. The wind still prevailed to the eastward, and
by its ubduracy almost tore the very hopes of our
hearts away. It was impossible to silence the rebellious repinings
of our nature at witnessing such a succession of hard
fortune against us. It was our cruel lot not to
(00:45):
have had one bright anticipation realized, not one wish of
our thirsting souls gratified. We had, at the end of
these three days, been urged to the southward as far
as latitude thirty six degrees, into a chilly region where
rains and squalls prevailed, and we now calculated to tack
(01:06):
and stand back to the northward. After much labor, we
got our boat about, and so great was the fatigue
attending this small exertion of our bodies, that we all
gave up for a moment, and abandoned her to our
own course. Not one of us had now strength sufficient
to steer, or indeed to make one single effort towards
(01:26):
getting the sails properly trimmed to enable us to make
any headway. After an hour or two of relaxation, during
which the horrors of our situation came upon us with
a despairing force and effect, we made a sudden effort
and got our sails into such a disposition as that
the boat would steer herself, And we then drew ourselves down,
(01:49):
awaiting the issue of time to bring us relief or
to take us from the scene of our troubles. We
could now do nothing more. Strength and spirits were totally gone,
and what indeed could have been the narrow hopes that
in our situation then bound us to life. January twenty eighth,
Our spirits this morning were hardly sufficient to allow our
(02:12):
enjoying a change of the wind, which took place to
the westward. It had nearly become indifferent to us from
what quarter it blew. Nothing but the slight chance of
meeting with a vessel remained to us. Now. It was
this narrow comfort alone that prevented me from lying down
at once to die. But fourteen days stinted allowance of
(02:33):
provisions remained, and it was absolutely necessary to increase the
quantity to enable us to live five days longer. We
therefore partook of it as pinching necessity demanded, and gave
ourselves wholly up to the guidance and disposal of our creator.
The twenty ninth and thirtieth of January, the wind continued west,
(02:56):
and we made considerable progress until the thirty first, when
it again came ahead and prostrated all our hopes. On
the first of February it changed again to the westward,
and on the second and third blew to the eastward,
and we had it light and variable until the eighth
of February. Our sufferings were now drawing to a close.
(03:18):
A terrible death appeared shortly to await us. Hunger became
violent and outrageous, and we prepared for a speedy release
from our troubles. Our speech and reason were both considerably impaired,
and we were reduced to be at this time certainly
the most helpless and wretched of the whole human race.
(03:39):
Isaac Cole, one of our crew, had the day before
this in a fit of despair, thrown himself down in
the boat, and was determined there calmly to wait for death.
It was obvious that he had no chance. All was dark,
he said in his mind, not a single ray of
hope was left for him to dwell upon. And it
(03:59):
was falling in madness to be struggling against what appeared
so palpably to be our fixed and settled destiny. I
remonstrated with him as effectually as the weakness of both
my body and understanding would allow of, And what I
said appeared for a moment to have a considerable effect.
He made a powerful and sudden effort, half rose up,
(04:22):
crawled forward and hoisted the jib, and firmly and loudly
cried that he would not give up, that he would
live as long as the rest of us. But alas
this effort was but the hectic fever of the moment,
and he shortly again relapsed into a state of melancholy
and despair. This day his reason was attacked, and he became,
(04:43):
about nine o'clock in the morning, a most miserable spectacle
of madness. He spoke incoherently about everything, calling loudly for
a napkin and water, and then lying stupidly and senselessly
down in the boat again, and would close his hollow
eyes as if in death. About ten o'clock we suddenly
(05:04):
perceived that he became speechless. We got him as well
as we were able upon a board placed on one
of the seats of the boat, and covered him up
with some old clothes, left him to his fate. He
lay in the greatest pain and apparent misery, groaning piteously,
until four o'clock, when he died in the most horrid
(05:25):
and frightful convulsions I ever witnessed. We kept his corpse
all night, and in the morning my two companions began,
as of course, to make preparations to dispose of it
in the sea, when after reflecting on the subject all night,
I addressed them on the painful subject of keeping the
body for food. Our provisions could not possibly last beyond
(05:47):
three days, within which time it was not in any
degree probable that we should find relief from our present sufferings,
and that hunger would at last drive us to the
necessity of casting lots. It was, without any objection agreed to,
and we set to work as fast as we were
able to prepare it so as to prevent it spoiling.
(06:08):
We separated his limbs from his body and cut all
the flesh from the bones, after which we opened the body,
took out the heart, and then closed it again, sewed
it up as decently as we could, and committed it
to the sea. We now first commenced to satisfy the
immediate cravings of nature from the heart, which we eagerly devoured,
(06:31):
and then eat sparingly of a few pieces of the flesh,
after which we hung up the remainder, cut in thin
strips about the boat to dry in the sun. We
made a fire and roasted some of it to serve
us during the day. In this manner did we dispose
of our fellow sufferer, the painful recollection of which brings
(06:52):
to mind at this moment some of the most disagreeable
and revolting ideas that it is capable of conceding. We
knew not then to whose lot it would fall next,
either to die or be shot and eaten like the
poor wretch we had just dispatched. Humanity must shudder at
the dreadful recital. I have no language to paint the
(07:15):
anguish of our souls in this dreadful dilemma. The next morning,
the tenth of February, we found that the flesh had
become tainted and had turned of a greenish color, upon
which we concluded to make a fire and cook it
at once to prevent its becoming so putrid not to
be eaten at all. We accordingly did so, and by
(07:36):
that means preserved it for six or seven days longer.
Our bread during the time remained untouched, as that would
not be liable to spoil. We placed it carefully aside
for the last moments of our trial. About three o'clock
this afternoon, a strong breeze set in from the northwest,
and we made very good progress, considering that we were
(07:59):
compared held to steer the boat by management of the
sails alone. This wind continued until the thirteenth, when it
changed again ahead. We contrived to keep soul and body
together by sparingly partaking of our flesh, cut up in
small pieces and eaten with salt water. By the fourteenth
(08:20):
our bodies became so far recruited as to enable us
to make a few attempts at guiding our boat again
with the ore. By each taking his turn, we managed
to effect it, and to make a tolerable good course.
On the fifteenth, our flesh was all consumed, and we
were driven to the last morsel of bread, consisting of
(08:40):
two cakes. Our limbs had for the last two days
swelled very much and now began to paint us most excessively.
We were still, as near as we could judge, three
hundred miles from land, and but three days of our
allowance on hand. The hope of a continuation of the wind,
(09:01):
which came out at west this morning, was the only
comfort and solace that remained to us. So strong had
our desires at last reached in this respect, that a
high fever had set in in our veins, and a
longing that nothing but its continuation could satisfy matters were
now with us at their height. All hope was cast
(09:22):
upon the breeze, and we tremblingly and fearfully awaited its
progress and the dreadful development of our destiny. On the sixteenth,
at night, full of the horrible reflections of our situation,
and panting with weakness, I laid down to sleep, almost
indifferent whether I should ever see the light again. I
(09:44):
had not lain long before I dreamt I saw a
ship at some distance off from us, and strained every
nerve to get to her, but could not. I awoke,
almost overpowered with the frenzy I had caught in my slumbers,
and stung with the cruelty of a diseased and disappointed imagination.
(10:04):
On the seventeenth, in the afternoon, a heavy cloud appeared
to be settling down in an east by north direction
from us, which in my view indicated the vicinity of
some land, which I took for the island of Massafuera.
I concluded it could be no other, and immediately upon
this reflection the life blood began to flow again briskly
(10:26):
in my veins. I told my companions that I was
well convinced it was land, and if so, in all probability,
we should reach it before two days more. My words
appeared to comfort them much, and by repeated assurances of
the favorable appearance of things, their spirits acquired even a
degree of elasticity that was truly astonishing. The dark features
(10:51):
of our distress began now to diminish a little, and
the countenance, even amid the glooming bodings of a hard lot,
to assume a much fresher hue. We directed our course
for the cloud, and our progress that night was extremely good.
The next morning, before daylight, Thomas Nicholson, a boy of
about seventeen years of age, one of my two companions
(11:15):
who had thus far survived with me, after having bailed
the boat, laid down, drew a piece of canvas over him,
and cried out that he then wished to die. Immediately
I saw that he had given up, and I attempted
to speak a few words of comfort and encouragement to him,
and endeavored to persuade him that it was a great
(11:35):
weakness and even wickedness to abandon a reliance upon the Almighty,
while the least hope and a breath of life remained.
But he felt unwilling to listen to any of the
consolatory suggestions which I made to him, And notwithstanding the
extreme probability which I stated there was of our gaining
the land before the end of two days more, he
(11:57):
insisted upon laying down and giving himself up to despair.
A fixed look of settled and forsaken despondency came over
his face. He lay for some time silent, sullen, and sorrowful,
and I felt at once satisfied that the coldness of
death was fast gathering upon him. There was a sudden
(12:17):
and unaccountable earnestness in his manner that alarmed me and
made me fear that I myself might unexpectedly be overtaken
by a like weakness or dizziness of nature that would
berieve me at once of both reason and life. But
Providence willed it otherwise. At about seven o'clock this morning,
while I was lying asleep, my companion, who was steering,
(12:41):
suddenly and loudly called out, there's a sale. I know
not what was the first movement I made upon hearing
such an unexpected cry. The earliest of my recollections are
that immediately I stood up, gazing in a state of
abstraction and ecstasy, upon the blessed vision of a vessel
about seven miles off from us. She was standing in
(13:05):
the same direction with us, and the only sensation I
felt at the Here this copy of Chase's book ends,
but handwritten comments by Herman Melville, bound with this copy conclude,
thus I cannot tell exactly how many pages the complete
narrative contains, but at any rate, very little remains to
(13:27):
be related. The boat was picked up by the ship
and the two fellows were landed in Chile and in
time sailed for home. Owen Chase returned to his business
of whaling, and in some time became a captain, as
related in the beginning end of section ten end of
(13:48):
a narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of
the whale ship Essex of Nantucket, which was attacked and
finally destroyed by a large spermaceti whale in the Pacifit Ocean,
with an account of the unparalleled sufferings of the captain
and crew during a space of ninety three days at
(14:08):
sea in open boats in the years eighteen nineteen and
eighteen twenty
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