Chapter 7

Chapter 7

                The men notice that their ships are not equipped to take on the open ocean. Several start leaking and creative thinking must be used to fix them. In addition as if it were some cruel joke the Captain’s boat was attacked by an orca, or killer whale. (pg. 113) No one was hurt in the ordeal, but the boat was a pretty beat up and the crew rather shaken. I found this to be one of the two most ironic parts of the book. Not only were they attacked once but a second time.

 

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

                Then men then made plans. They were desperately scared of the rumors of the cannibals on the islands to the west so they decided to set course for the South American coast. Riding the trade winds south with their make shift sails they were on their way to what they hoped to be a speedy trip back to civilization. Each boat was given enough bread and water to last thirty days and two tortoises. (pg. 99) With these provisions they hoped to make it to America quickly. I personally think this plan was hopelessly flawed. The distance was over 2,000 miles whereas they could have taken their chances with the cannibals and been on land sooner. Also they would have realized there were no cannibals anymore.  

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

                The title of this chapter is The Attack. Simply by this title one would know that this is the turning point in the story. As the three teams are hunting a pod of sperm whales, Owen and Nickerson’s boat was damaged and they had to head back to the ship to make repairs. While on the ship an enormous sperm whale rammed the boat twice leading to the sinking of the Essex. The whale that attacked was estimated, by Chase and Nickerson, to be eighty-five feet long, an absolute massive sperm whale. (pg 87) All the men survived this attack and starts salvaging what they could from the wreck.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

                By this point in the journey the men have rounded Cape Horn, the tip of South America, and are moving up to the coast of South America. They were rather productive off the coast of Peru. They had caught and butchered eleven whales in a month and a half thus averaging about one whale every five days. Once moving from the coast of Peru they sailed to the Galapagos Islands to harvest Galapagos tortoises for their cherished meat. I found this very interesting because I had always thought of tortoises as a species that wasn't abundant or hunted for meat. The way they were descried though, they were everywhere on the islands. (pg. 78) The first mate Chase recorded that they harvested at least 180 over Galapagos natives. By the end of the chapter the ship filled with the live tortoises along with the crew headed in into the open ocean.  

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                In this chapter the crew got their first “taste” of whale blood. They were able to harvest their first whale off the coast of Argentina. It goes on to describe rather vividly they procedure in processing a sperm whale. (pg. 49) The blubber is cut up and thrown a board to be packed in large blubber barrels; next the massive head was removed to collect the oil in the cranial cavity. Though interesting, I found this rather brutal. I do realize that it is no different than hunting deer or caribou, but I just found it disgusting the amount of pleasure the men found it burning the excess blubber.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

                In this chapter the reader is exposed to the Essex and her crew. When a ship would leave port in Nantucket, it was a public event. The crew would have to get all of the sails up and ropes in appropriate places, a task that could be challenging under pressure for an experienced crew. This crew, however, was not experienced; the launch was a total humiliation for the Captain. During the launch the captain is to give no orders or assist in any way the launch was left to the clumsy crew. (pg. 29)  The crew was twenty-one men, including the captain and mates, and again there is a hierarchy. Firstly the first and second mates, Owen Chase and Matthew Joy, chose their teams of men to do the shifts of work on the ship. They started of picking the Nantucket natives, following the islanders the white men from the main land were picked next. Finally, like the little kids no one wants to be on their team in dodge ball, the African Americans were chosen next. Yet again I found this odd, it shouldn’t matter where the person is from or what color they are if they are better able to do the work then they should be picked first. Yes, I do realize that in this time the African American’s were rarely free, equality wouldn’t be heard, but the more hard working,  able members on a shift would get the desired amount of work done faster. After the ship shift teams were chosen the whale perusing teams were chosen next. Captain Pollard along with Chase and Joy participated in this pick, and yes, the picks were done in the exact same order with six men in each whale boat and three to stay aboard the Essex to tend to the ship. 

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 This chapter opens the reader up to the lifestyle of the whalers. Nantucket in the early 1800s is a booming whaling community. It would seem to an outsider that everyone, including women and children, breaths the whaling industry. (pg. 2) This chapter also describes the hierarchy of the island. It is a very religious island, mostly Quaker, for this reason I found it odd that there was such a profound hatred of others by the Quakers. Firstly the people that were not lucky enough to be the descendants of the original settlers fell short of those who were. In addition if a person was not Quaker they were all but blatantly avoided by the Quaker community. Finally if a man was not a whaler, had never been a whaler, or never intended to be a whaler, he automatically dropped in social standing. I thought this was really odd because whenever I had previously heard of Quakers I always thought of them as caring abolitionists who would risk their own safety to help others. This community, however, was vastly different before the Essex left port, and for years after the survivors’ return. All of the African American sailors aboard any whaling ship got lower quality food and were still segregated from the rest of the crew members. 

Nantucket Whaling Museum Video