Moby Dick and the Essex: The History Behind the Epic

Scott: 00:00:10

Today we set sail to the island of Nantucket, once the epicenter of the global whaling industry.

x, which met a tragic fate in: 1820

The harrowing ordeal of its crew, who faced starvation, exposure and resorted to cannibalism to survive, captured the imagination of countless people. People like a Mr. Herman Melville, who, inspired by the Essexes story and his own experiences at sea, penned the literary masterpiece Moby Dick.

Join us as we delve into Nantucket's rich whaling heritage, explore the true story of the Essex and discover how these events left their own mark on literature and on history. Welcome to Talk with History. I'm your host Scott, here with my wife and historian Jen.

Jenn: 00:01:26

Hello.

Scott: 00:01:27

On this podcast we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there. Alrighty, Jen. So today for those who I think this will be our first one back after a little bit of break.

So I hope that our audience has been enjoying kind of a look back on some of our favorite episodes from some of more popular episodes.

And we are kind of getting into our Northeastern history, whaling history, Nantucket, all this stuff because you've been working for American cruise lines now over the summer and you're kind of wrapping up the summer tour season so you'd have some more, more adventures to kind of to go on up there.

But you had the opportunity to go to Nantucket, which is not someplace that you and I would, we would seek it out, but it'd be hard for us, for us to do. So let's talk a little bit about Nantucket and whaling history.

This is such an interesting piece, kind of corner and niche of American history, especially with, you know, people will know from the intro and the podcast title with Moby Dick and Herman Melville. So let's, let's talk a little bit about that era, kind of how it came to be and where it evolved to.

Jenn: 00:02:43

It's so much a part of, it's weaved into American history. So much the whaling industry and then the book. Right. Call Me Ishmael is probably the most famous first line of any piece of literature.

Scott: 00:02:59

I'd say it's. Personally, I think Tale of Two Cities is the best times are the Worst, worst times, the best of times. But I think. Call me Ishmael. It's.

Jenn: 00:03:09

Call me Ishmael.

Scott: 00:03:10

It's a, it's. I think it's basically a tie.

Jenn: 00:03:12

I love it. So I was in Massachusetts.

So when you think of Massachusetts, this little square on one side state and kind of like curvy on the other side because of all these little islands on the south east part of it. And you get Martha's Vineyard in Nantucket on these two little islands.

It's the sixth smallest state by area in America, but it's the most populous state in New England. And when you think of New England and football, like this is where everyone goes to see the games and stuff.

you think of it originated in: 1630

And my first like experience ever with Nantucket is probably the same as yours was from the TV show Wings.

Scott: 00:04:04

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:04:05

Was like, oh, so cool. Where's Nantucket? They fly to Nantucket, they fly back and forth to Boston. Someday I want to go. So this was my first, first time ever to Nantucket.

Scott: 00:04:16

Yeah.

And, and for people listening, right, if you're watching, I'll kind of show a map of where Nantucket is compared to, I'll call it the mainland of the United States. But it's really like if you start south of Boston, you'll hit Providence. That's kind of the other Rhode island, you know, main, main spot.

Then from Providence you start heading due east, you're going to hit New Bedford. That's kind of right on the coast. Right on the coast. A little bit Ish. But then Nantucket is way out there.

I didn't realize how far out off the coast Nantucket was. That's why this whaling history is, was kind of born there.

It's because it's, it's about as far as you can go and still kind of be connected to the continental United States.

Jenn: 00:04:57

Yeah, it's the southeastern most town in Massachusetts and in the New England region. Because Nantucket is not only the name of the island, it's the name of the town.

Scott: 00:05:06

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:05:06

So it's like Nantucket, Nantucket. And Nantucket is adapted from an Algonquin name and that is the indigenous people there meaning far away island. So it makes sense. Right.

So the whaling industry, it was bustling in the 19th century. You have to think that the America was lit by whale oil and the Industrial Revolution was powered by Whale oil. And what does that mean?

You needed oil to lubricate all of those industrial gears. That's what was used for that at the time. They hadn't. They hadn't discovered petroleum yet. So everything is lubricated with whale oil.

Everything is lit with whale oil. They're using whale, or they're using the spermaceti from whale brains for candles and makeup.

Scott: 00:05:53

So soap.

Jenn: 00:05:54

It's soap for everybody in the world. So this is why this industry is so huge. And it really finds, like, it' its jewel of the whaling industry is Nantucket Island.

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 off of Moby Dick, they're. They're. The captain is from Nantucket, the ship is from Nantucket.

You're going to get men represented from Martha's Vineyard and New Bedford, because these are like the big places of wailing. So characters come from all of these different places.

But in reality, with the Essex, the three major guys or the main characters, they're Nantucketers. So it's just. It's a place that. It's just synonymous with whaling.

Scott: 00:06:47

he. In that era were from the: 1920

Jenn: 00:06:59

Oh, yeah, right.

Scott: 00:07:00

So they were doing that for. For quite some time.

Jenn: 00:07:02

So whaling, I mean, whaling was really indigenous to the people there because the way it worked there was. There's a lot of indigenous stories of a famous chief who. A whale washed up on shore.

The chief was a giant, grabbed the whale by the tail and banged it against the side of the island and showed the people how to harvest it. And so this kind of legend of whaling starts with the people there because whales were. This was a very busy whale area, environmental history.

Whales migrated all through these islands and when they would die, they would wash up on shore. And when they washed up on shore, the. The first peoples there would harvest it.

Scott: 00:07:44

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:07:44

And so they would cut off the blubber. They would boil the blubber, boil the blubber into whale oil, cut off the head, find the spermaceti.

They'd use every bit of it, the whale tongue, a great source of protein. So then eventually they just would get in boats and just go right off the shore.

And that's why harpooners, so the harpooner is the man on the very end of the boat who harpoons the whale in the beginning. And we'll talk about what that process looks like.

The most famous ones were from Nantucket because they just did it right off the island for so long because the whales would migrate right there. They would just get in their boats, row out, harp.

Harpoon a whale, you know, and then, you know, kill the whale and then bring the whale in to the shore and then all the people there would harvest it. That was very much a part of their culture for a very long time until America really had the demand for whale oil.

And all of a sudden all of these whales are harvested in this natural area of migration and so there's no more left. And so much so that the whaling industry, when we get to the Essex, there's no more whales left in this New England area.

There's no more whales really left on the Atlantic side of America. They have to go around South America to the Pacific to whale because it's been so over harvest.

Scott: 00:09:06

Yeah, that was one thing I didn't, I don't think I ever really realized until you made the video and then I, I made it yesterday. We just recently published it was.

That's the reason that, you know, the Essex was on the other side of, of the Americas was because they had essentially like hunted out all the whales in the Atlantic.

Jenn: 00:09:26

I mean, so when you think of whaling, they're going after four basic whales. They're going after the humpback, the fin, the right whale, and of course the sperm whale.

And the sperm whale is the most prized whale because the sperm whale, the Pinocchio whale has the big head. And with the big head comes a big brain, which comes all that spermaceti whales don't have that. They're kind of flat there.

And so everyone's looking for a sperm whale. And even Moby Dick in the book is a sperm whale. Now these whales are so over hunted and harvested, they almost hunt them all to extinction.

Scott: 00:10:04

Wow.

Jenn: 00:10:04

That's how bad it gets because they are just hunting these whales. And that's why when we talk about the Essex, we talk about a whale fighting back is whales are starting.

They're not, they're not unintelligent animals. Right. You would think they are the biggest animal, the, the largest animals. Their brains are relatively large as well.

They understand what's happening by this point, by this hundred years of them and probably watching, because they travel in pods, watching pieces of their pods being plucked away, that they realize what's happening.

Scott: 00:10:38

So so, so tell me a little bit about the Essex and kind of the main characters there. And then was, was the Essex actually like, I know in Moby Dick, it's the white whale. Was that true to life as well for the Essex story?

Jenn: 00:10:51

So there was a white whale. So let me, let's talk a little bit about how whaling works and then we'll go into the Essex.

But yes, what was found, especially now that we don't whale like we used to, when whales get very old, 70, 80 years old, they turn white.

Scott: 00:11:08

Oh, okay.

Jenn: 00:11:09

So what probably happened in Moby Dick, it's an albino whale, which could very much happen. There was a whale that people did report seeing, but it could most more likely was a whale that had survived.

Scott: 00:11:25

The whaling industry had just been around.

Jenn: 00:11:27

For so long that it had turned white because of its age. And that is what naturally happens now, since the whaling industry is not anything near what it used to be.

But let me talk, I just want to talk a little bit about how whaling works because people get confused sometimes. Like, how is this ship taking these huge whales? Like, how are they getting these huge whales to the ship and then harvesting them?

So a whaling ship usually has five whaling boats. So remember, a boat goes on a ship and, and in the navy, we also like to refer to submarines as boats. So you have five whaling boats.

And in, on a whaling ship you get two people who go into the crow's nest, which is on the largest mass, which is usually center mast, and they're watching for the blowhole of a whale, right? They're watching for that water spout. And when they see it, it's just like a movie, like there she blows. Right?

And so they will turn the ship towards that because it's usually a pod. Whales don't travel alone, so they usually go toward that area. And the men get into the whaling boats.

Usually three will go out and they have five in case something happens. And a team of six would be in the whaling boat. So you have two people ro.

We have four people rowing the boat, one person in the back working the rudder and the harpooner out in front. And think of a harpoon as this huge javelin of metal, right, With a elaborate type of hook on it.

And they came 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.

Scott: 00:13:08

Well, and I think you even mentioned it in the video too, is a lot of times, once they start harpooning Right. And trying to wear it down, it's kind of like fishing, right?

You hook the fish and if, especially if it's a bigger fish, you kind of let it go out and reel it back in. And let it go out and reel it back in, wear it down to when you can finally get to it.

But there was times, I think you say it in the video, that the whales would dive and they'd have to cut the line.

Jenn: 00:13:28

So there's three things that can happen. So they go out to the whale, they stop kind of rowing as they get close, because the whale can hear, and they get as close as they can.

And that's why the harpooner, it's such a specialized skill because they are throwing that harpoon, they're not getting real close to the whale because the whale can hear them. So it's like a javelin thrower, right? And he's holding this big piece of metal that's attached to a rope that's attached to the boat.

So he's trying to get this, this javelin, this harpoon into a big chunk of the whale. And the whale can do three things. It can dive, and if it dives, you better cut that line as quick as you can. That's how you lose a harpoon.

But if you don't, you're all going down.

Scott: 00:14:10

So it's just. It's going to pull the boat down.

Jenn: 00:14:11

It's going to pull the boat down. It's strong enough to pull you all down.

It can turn back on you and attack your boat, which is also when you're going to cut the line and try to get away. There are instances of whale jaws crunching boats.

Scott: 00:14:23

Wow.

Jenn: 00:14:24

Right, so or it can run, and that's what you want it to do. It's called the Nantucket Sleigh Ride. You want the whale to stay on the surface and. And run and try to get away.

And the six men in the boat are going to hold on and it's going to go back and forth. And they're trying to tire out the whale. And you can kind of think almost like Jaws, a little foreshadowing here with the barrels. Right.

They're trying to make the. The shark tired. They're trying to get the whale tired. Once it gets tired and it runs out of gas and it needs to catch its breath. It's a mammal.

It has to come up and breathe.

They pull in closer to it, and by doing that, then they get spears out and every man on the boat will try to spear the whale in its lungs on the side and on the back, and they're watching for blood to come out of the blow hole. Once blood comes out of the blow hole, they say chimneys of fire, which means the whale is going to die. Anytime you get blood in your lungs.

Scott: 00:15:20

Man, I, I can't imagine, like watching or participating in something like that. How. Like just physically demanding and exhausting and brutal and. I mean, it's just all the things dirty. I mean, dirty and not just.

Now we know like whaling is, is. I think it's illegal in lots of places, if not most of the world. But think about what they were doing.

These guys are rowing boats out there and smack in the middle of the ocean. Just like, like, it's crazy to me to think about these guys doing this.

Jenn: 00:15:54

Yeah, the brute strength.

Scott: 00:15:55

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:15:56

And when, when I say chimneys of fire in the blood's shooting up, where do you think that blood's going?

Scott: 00:16:00

Yeah, I mean, they're pulling themselves up, up to the whale.

Jenn: 00:16:03

It's all over you. Right. Like you'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 to do, but it was so lucrative and for a sailor's life. We'll talk about this with the Essex. And it really was a balance there.

You could be African American, you could be white, you could be from different places and you would all be making the same money. So it's one of those, one of those jobs that everyone was treated equally and you really were treated on your skill level. So.

Scott: 00:16:36

So when they, they kill it, right? There's. There's the blood and all of a sudden, like. So are they. Then kind of like. Is the, the larger whaling ship coming up closer?

So you're going to fall it over?

Jenn: 00:16:47

Yes. So you're going to wait for the whale to die. It's called the flurry.

So once you get it in the lungs and it's these chimneys of fire, you don't have to do anything else. The whale is going to kind of swim in circles. It's going to go on its side and flutter its tail. It's called the flurry.

It's basically the end of its life. Right. It's gasping for air and then it'll die. And then. Yes, the ship comes to you. You pull it to the ship and this is when the real work begins.

This is why it's such an exhausting job. So they'll bring it to the right side of the ship and they'll chain it up to the side of the ship.

And usually the men would go to sleep because they're exhausted.

Scott: 00:17:25

So, so they're harvesting it essentially 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 of the ship.

Jenn: 00:17:36

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:36

And then they start doing all this stuff.

Jenn: 00:17:38

Think of it's like 50 tons.

Scott: 00:17:39

Wow.

Jenn: 00:17:40

50 ton whale. So what happens now 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 to harvest this whale, which is basically cutting symmetrical, basically rows of blubber off the side of the whale.

And they do have what they call tri works, which are really just like a big metal iron cauldrons right in the middle of the ship and they put in coals underneath it and they're cooking this blubber into oil.

And on a ship, which I always think is hilarious, because if you know anything about being on a ship and the rocking with this super, super hot boiling oil, like you're setting yourself up for disaster here. But the deck would get super slippery because there's oil all over the deck. This is where you have to be watching out for people falling overboard.

Because you know what else follows a dead whale? Oh yeah, sharks.

Scott: 00:18:35

Sure.

Jenn: 00:18:35

So the shark's waiting for it. They're waiting for the.

Scott: 00:18:37

t? You know, obviously of the: 1800

But they would paint the sharks in the water, follow following the ship with the whale like, you know, strapped to the side of the ship. And they would paint the sharks in the water because they're out there, that's chum for them.

Jenn: 00:18:56

So they're waiting for it. So if you fall overboard, you don't want to be overboard with a bunch 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 about three days. It's exhausting. They're boiling the blubber to make oil and they're putting all the oil into the boat barrels. Right.

And so all the barrels go down below into the storage. And this is how you're getting all of this oil. Then usually the head they sever, they put it on the front of the ship.

They usually make a big hole in the brain.

And the cabin boy, his lucky job is to be lowered down into the Brain with a bucket and he gets to bucket out the spermaceti and it smells horrendous. People say you could smell a whaling ship before you could see it.

Scott: 00:19:42

Wow.

Jenn: 00:19:43

Like it's just horrid. And so this process takes about two or three days. Men are exhausted. They're putting all the, the oil into the barrels.

They got about 10 barrels per whale. And they clean the deck, right. They got to get all that oil off the deck, clean the deck.

They're going to let the whale carcass go to the sharks and they start the whole process again.

Scott: 00:20:06

That's, that's wild. So that's what the Essex was sailing around. Did they sail all the way around the southern tip of South America to get up to the Pacific side?

Jenn: 00:20:16

Yes. So they had already sailed all the way and they had already gotten like 10 whales. They had about a hundred barrels.

Usually you have about 150, 120 coming back.

Scott: 00:20:27

So they were almost done.

Jenn: 00:20:29

,: 1819

A year and a couple months. A whaling excursion, because it had to take you now to the Pacific, was at least two years.

And because of that you will get instances of wives and children going with a whaling captain because sometimes you didn't want to be without them. So it's not as rare as people think for a woman to be on a ship. Sometimes wives and children did go, but sometimes they didn't go.

And when I talk a lot about Nantucket, I want people to remember when the men were gone because this was a male dominated industry and they were wailing like crazy to, to light America. Women ran the island. So you get a lot of like women's voting, women saying, my husband and I vote this.

And they were taking care of commerce, they were taking care of fixing houses and doing things, schools like. It was a lot of women empowerment there in Nantucket.

And you're going to see that through history where New England is going to be the start of the temperance movement. You're going to get a lot of women's starting the right to vote in that area because of all of this informal power that women have through whaling.

It kind of starts this whole idea that women are taking control of their power. So the Essex has gotten about 10 whales. They are on the other side of South 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 a sperm whale. And the whale doubles back on the ship and I think just rams the ship twice. This is November 20th. And breaks the Essex in half.

Scott: 00:22:16

Just. And just. Just from hitting it twice, even twice with its head. Wow. And it's crazy.

Jenn: 00:22:21

I know. And these men are like, oh, my gosh. So they're losing all their oil. They lost. They. They lost the whole ship.

And they only at the time had three whaling boats.

Scott: 00:22:33

Like I said, they essentially turn into, like, lifeboats.

Jenn: 00:22:35

Yeah, like I said, usually with five. They had lost two already in that year that had just been destroyed. Like I said, a whale had dove or had come back. And so.

So you lose ships in that way, boats in that way. So they only had three. So when the. The whale hits the Essex, smashes it in half, it sings. The. The 18 men, the 20 men go into the three boats.

And so you get Captain Pollard. So he's from Nantucket, he's going to take control of one boat. You have the first.

First mate, Owen Chase, he's also from Nantucket, he goes into the second boat. And the second mate, Matthew Joy, goes into the third boat. I try to tell people it's kind of like co exo opso. Like it's your three highest people.

And cabin boy goes with the first mate. So cabin boy goes with the xo. And Captain Pollard also has his cousin with him from Nantucket. His cousin's only 15 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 like you're setting yourself up for disaster here.

Scott: 00:23:41

So they're. They're kind of. They jump into the three boats, they ration the food and ration everything, and then they're basically trying to find.

I assume they're trying to find the next closest land where they can get on land.

Jenn: 00:23:54

So they give each other, like two casts, one barrel of water, one box of hardtack. Hardtack was that cracker not realizing hard. The hardtack everybody got had been drenched in salt water. Salt water dried.

And they each get two turtles, so they eat the turtles too. And they each get a pistol. And so they make kind of like makeshift masts, right? They put up these fake masks and try to sail.

They're trying to sail these boats because these boats don't have. Have any sailing capability of robots. Yeah, Right.

And so the closest islands to them, they're right on the other side of the Galapagos when this happens. The Marques Islands and the Society Islands are the closest islands to them, and that's where the current would push them.

But they were concerned that those islands had cannibals. Oh, yeah, right. And in reality, those islands had already been visited by missionaries and there was no cannibalism going on there.

They would have been fine.

Scott: 00:24:51

So if they had just stopped there, they'd. They'd been fine.

Jenn: 00:24:53

They would have been fine. But they didn't do that. So it's not until December 20th, so that's about a month later that they make Henderson Island.

Scott: 00:25:03

So they've been in this little boat for a month plus. Plus a little over a month, and they've already hardtack and basically just water.

Jenn: 00:25:14

And starvation is hit.

Scott: 00:25:15

Oh, my gosh.

Jenn: 00:25:15

And Henderson Island, I think they use the word island very loosely here. It's basically like a coral reef that is kind of sustained some land.

So there's some fresh water there, there's some birds there, there's some eggs there. But after a week, these men have eaten it all. Eat it all. They've depleted it, sure.

So on December 26, that's like not even a week later, they decide that they would starve if they stay. So they're gonna go. They're gonna venture out in these three boats again. They leave three men behind on Henderson Island.

The three men they leave behind, William Wright, Seth Weeks and Thomas Chapel, they're the only white members of the crew who are not native of Nantucket. So they're. They're just not capable sailors when you think about it. Right. People were very much aware of where you were from and how good you were.

Yeah, Right. And so they knew that these men would not be the best sailors. They're not going to be the best at handling this long excursion. So.

And I think one is pretty sick. And so they decide to stay on Henderson island and just try their luck with rainfall and what other birds kind of land there.

Scott: 00:26:25

And I think those. Those three actually end up surviving.

Jenn: 00:26:27

They end up surviving. Pollard tells them, when I get rescued, I'll send a ship back for you. And Pollard actually does that. And that's why they.

All three of them will survive.

Scott: 00:26:36

That's wild.

Jenn: 00:26:37

So the other three ships go. In the beginning, some men will die from exposure from sickness and they give them burials at sea.

But when they start to realize that they've been out there for a while, they. And they have no food, they start to resort to cannibalism. And so it's going to be on Pollard's boat where his cousin is on the boat.

They draw lots and his cousin draws the lot. And Pollard will argue with him. Remember, he promised his mother I would bring him back. That it's my job. I'm the captain. I'm gonna die.

And his cousin gives him a message to give his mother, takes the gun and shoots himself before he even. Paula, even has a chance. Like he. He just wants to do his duty. And that's kind of what he says. And Pollard will never recover from this.

And this is why, even when he meets Herman Melville, they only talk for a couple minutes. Because Pollard really. This will be some ptsd. Never has children.

Scott: 00:27:33

I can't even imagine.

Jenn: 00:27:34

Right.

Scott: 00:27:35

Like coming out of this and, and trying to be normal.

Jenn: 00:27:38

Yeah. So the first ship that's rescued will be the first mate ship. February 18th.

So think about two months after they've left Henderson Island, Lawrence, who was steering Chase's Borough, spots a. A sail. And they managed to catch up with the vessel. It turns out to be the British ship Indian. And so they have three men still alive on their boat.

You're going to have Owen Chase, the cabin boy, and one of the harpooners has survived. So.

Scott: 00:28:04

And I believe Owen Chase in the movie Heart of the Sea, that is Chris Hemsworth. Chris Hemsworth, right. The. You know, you would know him from the movie Thor. Yeah, right. He's Thor. But he plays the first mate.

Jenn: 00:28:17

It's. Yeah, Exo.

Scott: 00:28:18

He play. He plays the first mate who survives. And I think in that movie the story is told by, by him or like his, his children or something like that.

Jenn: 00:28:26

Yeah. So in the movie it's not accurate. It's the cat, it's the. It's the cabin boy who has grown old, talks to Herman Melville one on one.

That never happened. Herman Melville. The only person of the Essex that Herman Melville ever talked to is Pollard. For 10 minutes.

We'll talk about that On Nantucket after he wrote the book. Book's already been published. When he meets him, the way Herman Melville comes in contact with this story is he meets Owen Chase's son.

Scott: 00:29:00

Okay.

Jenn: 00:29:00

And Owen Chase's son, because Herman Melville's trying to whale. He takes a whaling ship from New Bedford and he's trying his best to wail and he hates it. He thinks it's horrible.

So he basically ditches it in Hawaii, which, you know, awol. And then he comes into contact with Owen Chase's son and he tells him this whole story about his father and the Essex.

And that's when Herman Melville gets like, really? Yes. I can See how that would be because I'm miserable. So I'm gonna write a book about being miserable.

And really when you talk about Moby Dick, I always remind people this is really a story of men, a man's obsession with revenge. And it's really man against man.

And they say Herman Melville had a very precarious and difficult relationship with the captain of the whaling ship he was on. And so it's almost like he's writing about him and that relationship and Pollard has nothing to do with Ahab.

When you see Pollard and Ahab's, both of their. The personalities are completely different and so. But he's using the Essex of the being sunk by the whale as the backstory for Moby Dick.

And then Pollard's rescued on February 23rd. So about five days after that, again, 93 days after the sinking, Pollard is there with just one other person, Ramsdale.

And they are spotted by the whale ship Dolphine. And it is, if you read the account, when they came upon them, I can't even. They.

They didn't single for the ship or anything because the two men are on opposite sides of the boat sucking on the bones of the men. And when they came upon them, they weren't even sure who they were, what they. They weren't even sure what was going on.

And the only way they got them onto the boat and the only way they could get them to let go of the bones was to give them other fresh food. They weren't even like they're.

Scott: 00:31:01

They're so traumatized. So traumatized.

Jenn: 00:31:04

So this is Paul, it's the captain. Right. So they're basically have become animals. And then Pollard will say there's three men on Henderson Island. So in April.

d of February. So In April of: 1921

Scott: 00:31:24

That's brutal. Now they get back and you had had the chance to go, you know, on Nantucket they 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 this stuff. Now you weren't able to take video, but you take some pictures.

Their website's pretty good if you end up out there.

I think you even said in the video it's probably one of the busier museums, if not the busiest because that's kind of right up front where people come in. And it, from what it looked like, it gave you a really good overview of kind of all the history there in Nantucket and all that stuff. So it was.

It was pretty neat.

Jenn: 00:31:58

Yeah. So if you go to that railing museum in Nantucket, they're going to tell you the story of the Essex, right. They have a.

The back of the ship is recreated. They're going to tell you the story of the Essex, because the Essex was a Nantucket ship. And if you go there, you can go to where Pollard lives.

So Pollard will make it back to Nantucket, so will Owen Chase, so will Benjamin Lawrence. And Benjamin Lawrence was on Owen Chase's ship. He was the harpooner who was rescued.

And Benjamin Lawrence had the only artifact, which was a piece of twine he kept playing with on the ship. And that piece of twine is in the Nantucket museum.

Scott: 00:32:41

And we show pictures of it in the video.

Jenn: 00:32:42

Super cool to see. Pollard would get one other whaling ship. After that, the two brothers. And the two brothers will sink off the coast of Hawaii.

After that, he's never given another ship. He goes, returns to Nantucket, he becomes a night watchman, which is basically like security guard. Security guard, nothing.

And people would just see the old captain walk in the streets at night. And this is when Herman Melville kind of meets him. And so I take you to. Herman Melville will stay in a boarding house there.

And it kind of looks on to Pollard'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 the most profound effect on his life. He said he was one of the most prestigious, amazing men he's ever met. And it will. He even writes a whole poem about it.

Pollard never talks about that meeting. And again, Pollard never really talks about the sinking. I take you to his grave. He is in an unmarked grave in Nantucket Cemetery.

What's also kind of neat about all of this is I take you to where Owen Chase is home was. That's the first mate. That's Chris Hemsworth. Later in his life, he loses his mind.

Scott: 00:34:04

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:34:04

He resorts to living in his attic and hoarding food in his attic.

Scott: 00:34:08

And I think they kind of portray that in the movie, right? Yeah.

Jenn: 00:34:12

And they think he did that because of the, you know, Food. No food.

Scott: 00:34:15

The trauma that he went through.

Jenn: 00:34:16

The trauma that he's stuck on a.

Scott: 00:34:17

Lifeboat for three months.

Jenn: 00:34:19

Yeah.

Scott: 00:34:19

With nothing.

Jenn: 00:34:20

And then the other person who talks about it, it will be the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson.

He writes a tale about this that is also in the movie, who Herman Melville is supposed to have met, but in reality, no Herman Melville met no other members of the Essex besides Pollard. There was a whale called Mocha Dick. And it's so funny, so funny to say 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 that was notorious. People had seen it off the coast of South America. It's kind of like another name for John Jim Henry. It's a common male name, John Doe. Yeah.

So that's why they called it Moby Dick. Mocha Dick. It's like it's just this common male's name. That's where that comes from. But, yeah, so that's, that's that story.

when Moby Dick was published: 1851

It's not until after his life that Moby Dick really gets the appreciation that it comes to get today.

Scott: 00:35:34

Yeah, no, it was a different part of history that I had never really been interested in.

era of history that was early: 1800

Jenn: 00:35:54

So in: 1850

They've also overwheld. There's no more whales. So I will be. It's. It's good to say. Humpbacks and sperm whales have just started to be cited now off of Nantucket.

Oh, wow, they are coming back. America. A lot of Western countries do not whale. Japan is one of the only countries that does still whale.

But it is a controlled industry and the whale oil is not needed or used or what we need for it today. But I know people still eat it in indigenous areas, especially like Alaska and things like that. But.

But yeah, it's such a unique part of American history.

Scott: 00:37:05

The crew of the Essex faced unimaginable hardships. Starvation, dehydration and the haunting decision to resort to cannibalism to survive their ordeal.

Ordeal culminating in the loss of 12 out of 20 men, starkly contrasts the romanticized vision of whaling life. This tragic event not only left a permanent mark on maritime history, but also inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

A novel that delves into the complexities of human nature and the perils of obsession.

As we reflect on the Essexes story, we are reminded of the resilience and sacrifices of those who ventured into the unknown and the profound impact their experiences have had on literature and our understanding of the human spirit. Melville may have captured this complicated era and humanity on the high seas when he wrote, it is not down on any map. True places never are.

This has been Walk With History production. Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk with History is supported by our fans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal thanks go out to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Thank you to Doug McDelivery, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny, Gale Cooper, Christy Coates and Calvin Gifford. Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.