 {|    |} {| style="width: 250px; margin-top: 6px; margin-left: 30px; padding-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px solid #7f7f7f; border-right-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 2px; text-align: center;" |- ---- |- |  crew of essex upon last voyage |- | captain george pollard, jr. first mate owen chase second mate matthew joy boatsteerers thomas chappelobed hendricksbenjamin lawrence steward william bond sailors owen coffinisaac colehenry dewitt*richard petersoncharles ramsdellbarzillai raysamuel reed isaiah sheppardcharles shorterlawson thomasseth weeksjoseph westwilliam wright *deserted in ecuador, sept 1820 cabin boy thomas nickerson |} the essex was an american whaleship from nantucket, massachusetts. the ship, captained by george pollard, jr., was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern pacific ocean in 1820. the crew spent months at sea before the final eight survivors were rescued. first mate owen chase and cabin boy thomas nickerson wrote accounts of the ordeal, and the incident inspired herman melville's 1851 novel moby-dick. == ship and crew == the essex was an old ship, but because so many of her voyages were profitable she gained the reputation as a "lucky" vessel. captain george pollard and his first mate, owen chase, had served together on her previous, equally successful, trip, and it led to their promotions. only 29, pollard was one of the youngest men ever to command a whaling ship. owen chase was 23, and the youngest member of the crew was the cabin boy, thomas nickerson, who was 14. she had recently been totally refitted, but at almost  long, and measuring about 239 [[builder's_old_measurement#american
American_folklore Full-rigged_ships Herman_Melville Incidents_of_cannibalism Maritime_incidents_in_1820 Moby-Dick Nautical_lore Shipwrecks_in_the_Pacific_Ocean Tall_ships_of_the_United_States Whale_collisions_with_ships Whaling_in_the_United_States Whaling_ships