T he Lyon Press 1999 edition includes not only Owen Chase 's version but those of two other survivors of the incident, the Captain of the Esse x and Thomas Chapple , one of three crew members who fetched up on Henderson Island. The slight volume also includes a facsimile of Melville's notes on these first hand reports. The ship had been stove, seemingly deliberately, by a whale, and in the aftermath the crew had resorted to cannibalism to survive. The first fact was the more remarkable, since in the history of whaling up until that time there had been no recorded instance of a whale maliciously attacking a ship while cannibalism was not unprecedented. Naslund's accounts of Una and her friends in the whaleboat appear to be based directly on these reports.
T here are as many versions of an event as there are participants.
Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex is a vivid reminder of that fact. This fascinating documentary not only enhances the reader's enjoyment and understanding of both the classic and the contemporary fiction it has spawned, but it is page turner itself. Ellis has spent most of his life researching and writing about marine life and is an acclaimed marine artist as well. Encyclopedic coverage, first of the specie and then of man's often rapacious interaction with it is accompanied by over 400 illustrations-photographs, antique renderings and the author's drawings. The work is both comprehensive and accessible to the general reader.