Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket;: Which Was Attacked and Finally Destroyed by a Large Spermaceti-whale, in the Pacific Ocean; With an Account of the Unparalleled Sufferings of the Captain and Crew During a Space of Ninety-three Days at Sea, in Open Boats in the Years 1819 & 1820.Chase, Owen
History
Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket;: Which Was Attacked and Finally Destroyed by a Large Spermaceti-whale, in the Pacific Ocean; With an Account of the Unparalleled Sufferings of the Captain and Crew During a Space of Ninety-three Days at Sea, in Open Boats in the Years 1819 & 1820.
The captain and the survivers of his boat’s crew, were taken up by the
American whale-ship, the Dauphin, Captain Zimri Coffin, of Nantucket,
and arrived at Valparaiso on the seventeenth of March following: he was
taken up in latitude 37° S. off the island of St. Mary. The third boat
got separated from him on the 28th of January, and has not been heard of
since. The names of all the survivers, are as follows:—Captain George
Pollard, junr., Charles Ramsdale, Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, and
Thomas Nicholson, all of Nantucket. There died in the captain’s boat,
the following: Brazilla Ray of Nantucket, Owen Coffin of the same place,
who was shot, and Samuel Reed, a black.
The captain relates, that after being separated, as herein before
stated, they continued to make what progress they could towards the
island of Juan Fernandez, as was agreed upon; but contrary winds and the
extreme debility of the crew prevailed against their united exertions.
He was with us equally surprised and concerned at the separation that
took place between us; but continued on his course, almost confident of
meeting with us again. On the fourteenth, the whole stock of provisions
belonging to the second mate’s boat, was entirely exhausted, and on the
twenty-fifth, the black man, Lawson Thomas, died, and was eaten by his
surviving companions. On the twenty-first, the captain and his crew were
in the like dreadful situation with respect to their provisions; and on
the twenty-third, another coloured man, Charles Shorter, died out of the
same boat, and his body was shared for food between the crews of both
boats. On the twenty-seventh, another, Isaac Shepherd, (a black man,)
died in the third boat; and on the twenty-eighth, another black, named
Samuel Reed, died out of the captain’s boat. The bodies of these men
constituted their only food while it lasted; and on the twenty-ninth,
owing to the darkness of the night and want of sufficient power to
manage their boats, those of the captain and second mate separated in
latitude 35° S. longitude 100° W. On the 1st of February, having
consumed the last morsel, the captain and the three other men that
remained with him, were reduced to the necessity of casting lots. It
fell upon Owen Coffin to die, who with great fortitude and resignation
submitted to his fate. They drew lots to see who should shoot him: he
placed himself firmly to receive his death, and was immediately shot by
Charles Ramsdale, whose hard fortune it was to become his executioner.
On the 11th Brazilla Ray died; and on these two bodies the captain and
Charles Ramsdale, the only two that were then left, subsisted until the
morning of the twenty-third, when they fell in with the ship Dauphin, as
before stated, and were snatched from impending destruction. Every
assistance and attentive humanity, was bestowed upon them by Capt.
Coffin to whom Capt. Pollard acknowledged every grateful obligation.
Upon making known the fact, that three of our companions had been left
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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