num_pages: 208
description: In 1819, The Whaleship Essex set sail from Nantucket for the South Pacific to hunt and kill grey-headed wales - among the largest and most powerful creatures in the ocean. That journey was to end in one of the most dramatic maritime disasters of all time - and one which became the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick.On the morning of 20 November 1820, more than a thousand miles from the nearest land, the Essex was sunk, rammed by an enraged sperm wale. Twenty sailors managed to scramble into three small boats and took to the open sea, but only eight survived what was to follow: three months of terror, exhaustion and crippling starvation.
title: The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex: A First-hand Account of One of History's Most Extraordinary Maritime Disasters
titlecomplete: The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex: A First-hand Account of One of History's Most Extraordinary Maritime Disasters
genres: Historical, History, Classics, Survival, Adventure, Memoir, Biography, Maritime, Travel, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 1305
places: Pacific Ocean
publisher: Barnes & Noble Books