Other editions of book Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex

On November 20, 1820, Owen Chase was the First Mate of the Whale-Ship "Essex" when it was struck by an enraged Sperm Whale and sunk, stranding the crew in tiny whale-boats 2000 miles away from land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Of the 21 men who entered the 3 flimsy whale-boats, only 8 ultimately survived to be rescued. A harrowing journey lasting 90 days awaited these crewmen, involving storms, shark-attacks, terrible privation, and in the last resort cannibalism.On his return from the journey in 1821 Owen Chase wrote this vivid account of his experiences, which in turn inspired Herman Melville to write the classic novel "Moby Dick".This true story will soon be a major motion picture (2014)

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex is an account by first mate Owen Chase of the Essex, a whale ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, that was sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean near South America in 1820. Of the twenty-man crew, only eight survived the horrific ordeal; some men were stranded on an island, all remaining crew were forced to eat food tainted by seawater and drink their own urine, and finally, when members of the crew started dying, those still alive resorted to cannibalism until they were rescued. Narrative of the Whale-ship Essex inspired Herman Melville to write his enduring classic Moby-Dick in 1851 (Cosimo Classics, 2015); it also inspired the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea* based on the 2000 best-selling book of the same name.