In 1820, a sperm whale attacked and sunk the Whaleship Essex. 2000 miles off the coast of South America, the crew knew it would be a true feat to survive and make it to shore--any shore. It’s story became legendary; Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about it; Edgar Allen Poe incorporated details of it in his only novel; and, most notoriously of them all, it served as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. This account retraces the history of one of the most famous shipwrecks of all time.

Three eyewitness accounts of a lethal attack by a sperm whale against a whaling ship in the Pacific in 1819, the incident that inspired Melville's Moby-Dick — as well as the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea. Illustrated with 12 wood engravings.

Read Owen Chase's memoir which inspired Moby-Dick and In the Heart of the Sea, the major motion picture from Ron Howard, released December 2015. Owen Chase was the first mate on the ill-fated American whaling ship Essex, which was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1820. The crew spent months at sea in leaking boats and endured the blazing sun, attacks by killer whales, and lack of food. The men were forced to resort to cannibalism before the final eight survivors were rescued. Herman Melville based his 1851 novel, Moby-Dick, on the sinking. Chase recorded the tale of the ship's sinking and the following events with harrowing clarity in the Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex. "I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship." - Owen Chase. Filled with art, photographs, maps, and artifacts, this is a richly illustrated edition of Chase's memoir, augmented with memoirs of other participants, as well as the perspectives of historians, contemporary and modern. "If you are interested in a coffee-table book which covers the importance of the whaling industry and the wreck that influenced Herman Melville to write the American classic Moby-Dick, then get the Complete Illustrated Edition: Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex." - William Connery, Author of Civil War Northern Virginia 1861

DON'T MISS THE MAJOR FILM INSPIRED BY CHASE'S NARRATIVE, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA On 20 November 1820, just south of the equator, the whaling ship Essex, spotted and pursued a shoal of sperm whales. As the crew started harpooning, the largest whale – some 85 feet long – rammed the Essex twice and 'stove in her bows'. What followed was an epic three-month voyage in open boats across storm-tossed seas. Only eight men survived, sustained by eating those who died. This edition includes Owen Chases’s famous account, as well as memoirs by two other crew members and a facsimile of Herman Melville's notes on Chase’s narrative.

This collection of entertaining, true-life, and riveting eyewitness accounts contains more than 30 remarkable first-person narratives by men and women who have endured a wide range of harrowing dangers.

The incredible sea adventure that inspired "Moby Dick" is recounted by one ofits few survivors. 2 maps. 8-page photo insert.

This is the true story which inspired the major motion picture, In the Heart of the Sea, and Melville's classic Moby Dick. 1820, at the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Sensational in its time, the epic tale still has resonance today. On the morning of November 20th, 1820, the whaleship 'Essex' was struck by an enraged sperm whale. The boat started to sink, and the twenty-one crew members who made it into the lifeboats found themselves stranded 2,000 miles from land. They had no maps and little food. This is their extraordinary story. Over ninety days at sea, the crew faced storms, starvation and even the last resort of cannibalism. Owen Chase, the first mate of the 'Essex', tells first-hand the harrowing account of the sailors' attempts to survive against all odds. 'The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex' is a thrilling saga and classic tale of courage in the face of insurmountable odds. Owen Chase (1797-1869) was the First Mate of the whale-ship 'Essex' and wrote 'The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex' about his experiences during and after its deadly wreckage. It was first published in 1821.

This collection explores the multifarious manifestations of gender intrinsic to national ideologies, the use of gender in the construction and development of nation states, and the role of political, literary, and cinematographic discourses in cultural debates that define national and international borders in post-colonial societies. The selected essays focus primarily on Europe and Latin America and consider the implications of colonialism, dictatorship, and the transition to democracy on national identities as well as the deliberate use of gendered language and images in the development of discourses of hegemony, frequently used to underpin support for individual political regimes, or as a call to arms to defend national patrimony. (Series: Cultural Studies / Kulturwissenschaft / Estudios Culturales / Etudes Culturelles, Vol. 55) [Subject: Gender Studies, Politics, Sociology, Cultural Studies]

Surviving the "Essex" tells the captivating story of a ship's crew battered by whale attack, broken by four months at sea, and forced - out of necessity - to make meals of their fellow survivors. Exploring the Rashomon-like Essex accounts that complicate and even contradict first mate Owen Chase's narrative, David O. Dowling examines the vital role of viewpoint in shaping how an event is remembered and delves into the ordeal's submerged history - the survivors' lives, ambitions, and motives, their pivotal actions during the desperate moments of the wreck itself, and their will to reconcile those actions in the short- and long-term aftermath of this storied event. Mother of all whale tales, Surviving the "Essex" acts as a sequel to Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, while probing deeper into the nature of trauma and survival accounts, an extreme form of notoriety, and the impact that the story had on Herman Melville and the writing of Moby-Dick.

JOHN GRIDER joined the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State as a Research Fellow in November 2015. He recently completed this captivating project, which investigates the complex interplay between gender, class and race sourced from the narratives of men who found themselves working in the transforming Pacific maritime industry during the mid-nineteenth century.