Learn how a whale rammed into the essex, a whaling ship in 1820, and the crew's ordeal of survival and cannibalism Discover how this incident inspired herman melville to write his classic novel, moby dick. The essex set sail in 1819, hoping for a successful whaling expedition Instead, the ship was sunk by a whale attack, leading to a brutal struggle for survival. The whaleship essex on november 20, 1820, an enraged sperm whale rammed and sank the nantucket whaleship essex in the middle of the pacific ocean, 1,300 miles from the nearest land Twenty sailors survived the attack and quickly outfitted their three small whaleboats to make a journey to safety.
The ship essex, commanded by captain george pollard, junior, was fitted out at nantucket, and sailed on the 12th day of august, 1819, for the pacific ocean, on a whaling voyage Of this ship i was first mate.
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