History's A Disaster
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History's A Disaster
The Sinking of the Essex Part 3: Heartbreaks & Bellyaches
The final chapter of the Essex tragedy unfolds as a haunting testament to human survival instinct pushed beyond moral boundaries. After spotting land, the starved crew members experience a fleeting moment of hope—only to discover Henderson Island offers little salvation. Despite its lush appearance, fresh water remains scarce, forcing these desperate men to make an impossible choice: continue the journey or remain stranded.
When tragedy forces them back to sea, nature's cruelty intensifies. Separated by a violent storm, the three whale boats drift apart, each crew now isolated in their private nightmare. As rations disappear completely, these ordinary sailors confront the unthinkable—consuming the flesh of their dead companions. First, they use those who die naturally, but eventually, on Captain Pollard's boat, they resort to drawing lots to determine who would be sacrificed so others might survive.
The racial dynamics add another disturbing dimension, as all four Black sailors perish and are consumed before most white crew members. After 89 days adrift, rescue finally comes—first for Owen Chase's boat, then for Captain Pollard and his lone remaining companion, found sucking marrow from human bones. Meanwhile, the three men who chose to remain on Henderson Island survive against all odds until their eventual rescue.
What happens after survival proves equally compelling. Captain Pollard, once a respected commander, ends his days as a night watchman after losing a second ship. Owen Chase writes a successful account of the disaster and returns to a prosperous whaling career. Some find meaning through religion, others through continuing their maritime lives. But all carry the weight of what they did to survive, their stories serving as a chilling reminder of what happens when civilization's veneer cracks under the pressure of pure survival.
What moral compromises would you make to stay alive? Follow History's A Disaster for more stories that challenge our understanding of human nature under extreme conditions.
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With land now in sight, the crew of the Essex was hopeful. Land meant possible salvation in the form of food and water, A chance to resupply before continuing on to the coast of South America. They just needed to stop and see. So what happened? I'm Andrew and this is History's A Disaster. I'm Andrew and this is History's A Disaster. Welcome back to the final part of the Essex Tragedy. Tonight we're finally going to finish the story, so let's get into it. But first, tonight's episode has a special sponsor the Long Pig Sausage Company. And if you use code it's not pork at checkout you'll get 50% off your first order of New England sailor, I mean New England sausage. And with that let's get into it.
Speaker 1:The starved and thirsty crew of Chase's boat stared at the island, blinded by the blazing sun. They squinted and watched Some fearful. It was just a mirage, but soon realized it was real enough. Being in the lead boat, they were the first to see it. They could tell when the other boat saw it too, as their cheers of joy spread through the air. Boats saw it too, as their cheers of joy spread through the air. They were soon within a quarter mile of the island and getting their first clear view of it. At first it was mostly rocks, with large 30-foot cliffs running along the shore, but as they drew closer they could see past the rocks to the flat green interior just lush with vegetation. The hope for plenty of fresh water grew at the sight of all that greenery. After consulting their previous location findings and the Bouditch's navigator, they concluded they were at the Duchi Islands, which meant they had traveled over 1,500 miles and were further from the coast than when they started. In their present condition they were a bit fearful of running into natives, so they circled the six-mile-long by three-mile-wide island, occasionally firing a pistol into the woods to get a response from anyone on the island. They got no response. Still fearing a possible ambush, chase led an advance party onto the shore of the largest beach on the north end of the island. The others would wait offshore just in case there was trouble.
Speaker 1:Chase took the musket and two men ashore. Their exhaustion made them stop on the beach for a few minutes to catch their breath after having to wade ashore. After a few minutes rest, they watched birds fly around them, unconcerned by their presence. They had found a food source, but what they desperately needed now was fresh water. They split up and made their way slowly down the beach in different directions. Chase managed to snag a fish in a nearby stream. As he dragged it ashore, he was quickly rejoined by the other two. They devoured the fish, bones, scales and, all Emboldened by the fresh food, they made their way to the cliffs, the most likely spot to find fresh water.
Speaker 1:However, the cliffs were cracked and dry coral. None of the vines were strong enough to support their weight, so they grabbed the sharp coral and attempted. It Bruised and cut up. They couldn't manage the climb. They were far too weak. They were getting worried they would find no fresh water here and spending too much time here without it would be a death sentence.
Speaker 1:Returning to the beach, one of the men made a promising discovery A small trickle of fresh water coming from a rock. It wasn't much, just enough to wet their lips, but it was promising. With a possible water source found, the decision was made to spend at least one night on the island. The boats were brought in and dragged onto the beach and flipped upside down to form some kind of shelter. Fish and crabs were collected and they sat back, tired and exhausted, to enjoy their feast. Sleep came quickly for the crew, but the morning came even quicker, and with it the pains of thirst and hunger. Severe dehydration had robbed them of the ability to speak. They dragged their weary bones across the beach and rocks. Birds were easily caught and grass was chewed to get some kind of moisture, but to no avail. No water was yet to be found. Since most of the men had no shoes, most of the island was inaccessible. The sharp coral and rocks made exploration outside of the beach nearly impossible.
Speaker 1:When they returned, dejected back to their little camp, they found Captain Pollard, and Steward William Bond had prepared a small feast of birds and crabs for the men. Pollard was making every attempt to keep the crew's spirits up and the food had helped to bring them together again. Little did they know at the time they were mistaken where they were. They were not on Ducey Island. They were 70 miles west of it, on Henderson Island, and just 400 miles to the southwest was Pitcairn Island, an island that had a thriving community that would have been able to help them with all the food and drink they needed. But since they weren't taking longitudinal readings, they had no idea how close they were to salvation. Nor were they aware they weren't the first to be lured into Henderson. A small cave on the island held eight skeletons that would be discovered much later, most likely another unlucky group of shipwreck survivors who washed up on Henderson and eventually died of dehydration.
Speaker 1:While they were on Henderson they did manage to find a small spring bubbling up from a rock on the beach Fresh, cool water. They drank their fill and attempted to fill kegs of water for the trip. However, they only had time to fill two small kegs. This spring was only available for a very short amount of time, during the lowest tide Any other time, and it was swallowed beneath the sea. With this discovery, they talked about remaining on the island for a few days.
Speaker 1:Over dinner the plan was to repair their boats and get their strength up with the food and water they'd believed would be readily available. The next morning they were able to catch 20 gallons of fresh water from the spring. When not filling kegs of water, their days were spent hunting for food. Evenings were the best. The tropical birds that called the island home were easy to sneak up on and smack with a stick when they were feeding their young. But this would not last. In just five days, the 20 men of the Essex had ransacked the island, eating everything in sight and scaring the birds from returning. The only thing left to them was grass. And well, that's just gross.
Speaker 1:By day seven, over a month, since the Essex had been attacked, they made to leave the island behind. The whale boats were fixed up as best they could be with the limited supply of nails they had. They were roughly 3,000 miles from Chile, twice the distance they had already sailed, pouring over their copies of Bounditch's Navigator. They seen Easter Island was much closer, roughly a thousand miles away. They knew next to nothing about the island but saw it as preferable than staying longer on the whale boats.
Speaker 1:As Pollard gathered the crew and explained what they were going to do, three men stepped forward to do. Three men stepped forward. Thomas Chappell, our little firebug from the Galapagos, along with two teenagers, seth Weeks and William Wright, announced their intentions to stay behind. They just did not want to get back on those little ass boats. Chapp Chapel reasoned that Joy was sick and not long for this world. While everyone else had regained some weight and looked healthier since arriving on Henderson Matthew, joy looked much worse. If Joy died, command of the whale boat would fall to Chapel. That was something he absolutely did not want. He did not want the responsibility of those men's lives.
Speaker 1:Them staying behind would work out better for everyone. They left their shares of rations on the boats, so the boats would not only have less of a load to carry. Each man would have a little bit more rations Not much, but some Some of them thought the three men left behind would have a better chance at survival than they had of making the mainland. After some reluctant farewells, the three turned to work on building a small crude shelter out of tree branches. Before leaving the island behind them, they circled around to another beach to try to do some fishing and catch some birds for the voyage. After catching a few and loading up, they were ready to go. They had more fresh water than before, extra food and their boats didn't leak anymore, with stones taken from the island. They also had small cooking fires set for the fish and birds. They were as comfortable as they were going to get.
Speaker 1:Now they just needed to sail east for Easter Island and some luck came their way when winds out of the northwest pushed them in the right direction. Their luck would only hold for three days, however, as the wind shifted again and they were now being pushed to the south of Easter Island, which lasted for a few days, before shifting to send them the right way. The right way was also right into some nasty weather that threatened to fill their boats with water, the wind was just not cooperating and they soon found themselves too far south to make Easter Island. Their next hope was some islands off the coast of Chile. However, they were over 2,500 miles from them, farther than what they had already sailed in a month and a half, and since they had finished off all the birds and fish, they were back to a diet of nothing but hardtack, and then the wind died completely. They were trapped helplessly beneath a blazing sun.
Speaker 1:Matthew Joy was only getting worse and on January 10th he died. His body was sewn into his clothes and a rock was tied to his feet before he was consigned to a watery grave. Before he was consigned to a watery grave, obed Hendrix was moved from Pollard's boat to take over command on Joy's boat and soon discovered that, in his illness, joy didn't keep up with rationing. There was only two, maybe three days of hardtack left aboard. The following few days led to worsening weather, and on the night that it turned into a full-blown storm. The three boats would become separated.
Speaker 1:The next day, chase's crew searched the water, but to no avail. Neither boat could be seen 600 miles south of Easter Island and another thousand to go and Chase and his crew were completely alone and the hardtack was getting dangerously low. Chase was now faced with the difficult decision to cut the rations again down to an ounce and a half a day. This was not an easy decision to make. Somewhere to the north of them, the other two boats were faced with a similar problem. Hendrick's boat was completely out of food, and the only question now was whether or not Pollard would share his own rations. He would, but that would now leave them in a serious problem.
Speaker 1:In a few days, when he too ran out, they would also face another serious problem. The wind died again, leaving them stranded, and to add to this, they were now getting hit with diarrhea, a symptom of starvation. They were also severely weakened and unable to do anything. Around the boat. Blackouts from moving too fast were common as they struggled to stand up. That night as Chase suffered, one of the crew, richard Peterson, attempted to steal some bread. When confronted and threatened with death, he confessed and Chase granted him mercy but threatened to kill the next man who stole.
Speaker 1:The winds picked up again and tension aboard Chase's boat eased up a little until a shark decided to try to make a stack out of the boat. The large shark snapped and bit at the boat, tempting to tear it apart. Chase grabbed the lance from the bottom of the boat and stabbed at the boat, tempting to tear it apart. Chase grabbed the lance from the bottom of the boat and stabbed at the shark, but the lack of food and water had weakened him to the point he didn't have the strength to pierce through the shark's tough exterior. There was nothing any of them could do to frighten the shark off. It would eventually get bored with slapping at the sides of the boat and swim off.
Speaker 1:The following day dolphins replaced the shark, jumping and playing around the boat. They tried again with the lance to kill one, but just as with the shark, they lacked the strength to pierce one. The dolphins would swim and jump playfully away from the boat, mocking the men in their glee. For the next two days the wind died and they were left at a standstill Sixty days since the Essex was sunk. They contemplated their deaths, how and when it would come. On the night of the second day, with no wind, the sperm whales came out to play. The crew was terrified. Surely they had come out to finish what the other had started when it sunk the Essex. But the men made it through the long, terrifying night unscathed. The following morning the wind finally picked back up, the sea pitched and rolled as lightning flashed across the sky, rain filled the air and the boat was tossed about the waves. Before things finally settled down After a storm battered day at sea, the wind calmed the next day.
Speaker 1:During the handing out of rations, richard Peterson refused his. He announced it was his time and the food may do someone else some good. That afternoon, after losing the ability to speak, peterson slipped away and his body was consigned to the oceans like joys before him. On that same day, on Pollard's and Henderson's boats, their food was almost gone. Less than a pound of hardtack was left to split between 10 men.
Speaker 1:And when Lawson Thomas, one of the black sailors, passed, they all had the same unspeakable thought All they had to do was butcher the body. Most likely the head, hands, feet and skin would have been removed and dumped in the ocean. As is typical in most situations of forced cannibalism, the most obvious signs of humanity are removed and disposed of before the body is stripped of meat for food. Afterwards, a fire was lit on the stones and the organs and meat were roasted before they began to dig into their former crewmate. As they ate, their hunger was not sated, they just got hungrier. The average adult male should provide around 66 pounds of meat. However, after two months of being starved and dehydrated, they may have gotten only as much as 30 pounds from his emaciated body. With the heart attack gone, though, anything was better than nothing. The lack of a better diet provided to the Black Sailors and having less body fat than their white counterparts would soon come to haunt the Black Sailors. Two days after Thomas' death, charles Shorter passed away and was quickly butchered and eaten.
Speaker 1:A hundred miles south of them, chase's crew was trapped on the windless sea. Their scant diet of an ounce and a half of hardtack had left them with barely the strength to move about. Their skin was breaking out with boils. They were growing despondent and leaning heavily on Chase to lift their spirits. Recognizing their need for hope, chase was becoming a changed man. No longer acting as a strict disciplinarian, he spoke with his crew more gently, offering hope for salvation when he could.
Speaker 1:For three days the wind picked up, driving them further and further south. During a noon reading of their location, chase learned they had traveled 600 miles due south of Henderson Island and were 1,800 miles west of Chile. The sun gave way to a terribly cold rain. With their starvation-wracked bodies already losing too much heat, they were soon at a real risk of suffering from hypothermia. As they headed further away from the equator, they had to turn back north, towards the equator and warmer weather, and in their weakened condition it took them much longer to get the boat turned. But they eventually got there and the boat was heading back straight north, traveling parallel to Chile. So they would get no closer, but at least there was less of a chance of hypothermia.
Speaker 1:Back in Hendrick's boat, isaiah Shepard would be the third black sailor to die and be eaten within seven days. Samuel Reed in Pollard's boat would die the next day and be eaten, leaving the steward William Bond as the last surviving black sailor. The men in Hendrick's and Pollard's boats were being driven feral by their insatiable hunger and not knowing who would be the next to die. Within feral communities like this, it is common that subgroups can form, and it is worth mentioning that within Nantucketer's already clannish nature, that it is very possible that the black sailors were not fed at all, thus hastening their deaths, if not outright murdered for food, since none would survive. There would be no accounts from the black sailors on what happened.
Speaker 1:The day after Reed's death, the night turned dark and the two boats became separated. Pollard and his men were too weak to make any attempt to find them, so they found themselves completely alone for the first time since the Essex sank 1500 miles from shore and with only the half-eaten body of Samuel Reed for food. But still they were way better off than the men on the now-missing boat. Hendricks had no compass nor means of navigating the sea. They were completely lost and would never be heard from again.
Speaker 1:A week after the separation, and with food now totally gone, the youngest of the four remaining crew members spoke. The unspeakable Lots should be drawn to see who would die so the others could live. When Charles Ramsdale first proposed it, pollard resisted. This was not a decision that could be taken lightly, but he eventually relented to his crew. A scrap of paper was cut up and placed in a hat. Owen Coffin was the unlucky winner of the lottery. Pollard offered to take his young cousin's place, but Coffin was resigned to his fate. Charles Ramsdale drew the next lot that determined who would kill Coffin. He initially refused, despite this being his idea, but after a few moments were given, coffin was executed and butchered.
Speaker 1:Far to the south, chase's crew was dealing with cold rain and a light breeze. They had 14 days of hardtack left and too far to go with so little food. The only real hope they had was to be found by a ship. They were weak, barely able to move about. The boat. Reduced rations were slowly killing them. Chase made the decision to eat what they could to stave off impending death from starvation and hoped that the winds would take them to safety. It didn't help much but to bring back the pains of hunger.
Speaker 1:During one long night, isaac Cole fell into a deep depression. He had given up completely. After being talked out of it by Chase and Nickerson, he was a little better. But by the next day things got worse. Spasms and twitching rocked Cole's body. He could barely speak. They did what they could for him but he would not survive. The afternoon they wrestled with what to do with Cole's body throughout the night. No one wanted to say it. But the next day, chase said what they'd all been thinking. With very little heart attack left and starvation ravaging the crew, they butchered the body, consigning part of it to the sea, and the rest was roasted over a fire or left to dry in the sun. The flesh left out to dry started to turn rancid during the night, so it was cooked and eaten the next day In Pollard's boat. Five days after Coffin was executed, barzilla Ray died, leaving Pollard and Ramsdale the only surviving members of the crew. They were left with Ray's corpse and the bones of Coffin and Reed for food. It would have to be enough to see them through.
Speaker 1:Chase and his surviving crew, benjamin Lawrence and Thomas Nickerson, after having eaten the last of coal and increased rations of hardtack, were feeling stronger. They could once again manage to steer the boat despite their severe pains. They could once again manage to steer the boat despite their severe pains. On top of the boils all over their skin, their arms and legs were swelling from edema, a symptom of dehydration. They were now within 300 miles of Massafuera Island, a mere five day sail, but they were down to three days worth of heart attack. The fear of dying so close to rescue, ran through their minds. Chase tried to keep their spirits up, with land soon being spotted. They just had to hold out for two more days. They wouldn't need those two days.
Speaker 1:Within a day a sail was spotted and they made their way to intercept the large ship as it passed by. Eventually, the merchant ship the Indian out of London saw them and made towards the lost little whale boat. When they got alongside them, chase and his crew were too weak to climb aboard. They were a horrible sight for the sailors aboard the Indian. They were little more than living skeletons with loose hanging skin and wide dark eyes in their skeletal faces. Captain William Crozier took pity on them and his sailors carried the men aboard. Finally, after 89 days since the Essex sank, they were rescued. They had traveled over 2,500 miles across the open ocean. A few more days would put the Indian in the Chilean port of Valparaiso, 300 miles to the south.
Speaker 1:Pollard and Ramsdale sailed on. Within five days of Chase's rescue they were approaching the island of St Mary's off the coast of Chile. The last of Ray's flesh was long gone and they resorted to cracking open the bones of their former crew members to suck the marrow from the bones. They were severely weakened, often unable to lift their heads. As they drifted in and out of consciousness, they grew delusional. As they dreamed of better days. They became obsessed with the bones, seeing them as gifts from their friends. They filled their pockets with finger bones as they sucked the marrow from the ribs as they sailed on. And that was how the crew of the Dolphin found them Two skeletons of men cowering in their boat, sucking on the bones they jealously guarded. They too would have to be carried aboard the ship, too weak to make it on their own. The Dolphin's captain, zimri Coffin, had dinner with the captain of the Diana, aaron Paddock and Pollard, who would compulsively tell his story, sparing no detail of what happened. Captain Paddock later that night wrote down the first official account of the wreck.
Speaker 1:After reaching Valparaiso, chase and his men would spend the next few months aboard a US Navy ship, the Constellation recuperating. In March they would be reunited with Captain Pollard. The five survivors of the Essex, after months apart, were finally in the same room together, and while they were being reunited, the captain of the Constellation was making good on a promise made to Chase. They made arrangements for the Surrey to set off for Duchi Island. After finding nothing, they solved the mystery of where the men actually were. They arrived just as Chapel Weeks and Wright were sitting down to a dinner of tropic birds.
Speaker 1:Their time spent on the island had not been easy. Food had started to get scarce, but the water situation was even worse. The fresh water spring that laid just below the low tide never again resurfaced. They had to watch as it bubbled just beneath the surface. They dug trenches and wells for groundwater but found nothing. They had to survive off whatever rainwater they were able to collect and drinking the blood of the birds they caught. The Surrey would eventually arrive and, after some issues getting ashore, were able to rescue all three men.
Speaker 1:Months later, another ship landed nearby and discovered a whale boat with four skeletons inside. It wouldn't be until 1825 that someone made the connection that this was possibly the lost whale boat from the Essex. Later, in the month of March, captain Pollard would be deemed, two weeks after the ordeal, to make the trip home. The other four would board the whale ship, the Eagle, and head for Nantucket. Pollard would follow two months later aboard the ship, the two brothers. Before the men could make it back to Nantucket, a letter containing an incomplete account of what happened reached Nantucket ahead of them. According to this account, what happened reached Nantucket ahead of them. According to this account, most of the crew was not expected to return home. So it was quite a shock when four of the crew returned, beaten and shrunken down but alive. Upon the return, chase would get to meet his 14-month-old daughter for the first time.
Speaker 1:Word quickly spread through town of the tragedy, but no official records were written down. They were waiting for Pollard's return. They wouldn't have long to wait. August 5th the two brothers arrived with Captain Pollard aboard. 1500 people came out to greet him. The crowd was in awe and not a single word was spoken. As Pollard aboard, 1,500 people came out to greet him. The crowd was in awe and not a single word was spoken as Pollard passed through.
Speaker 1:Afterwards he would be subjected to a lengthy interview with the owners of the Essex about what happened and, even worse, he would have to face his own family members, specifically Owen Coffin's mother. To say she was a little upset with the man she entrusted her son's life to would be an understatement. They would never reconcile over what happened. The town would be less judgmental over what happened. In fact, pollard had impressed the captain of the two brothers on the voyage home so much that he recommended Pollard for command of the ship A ship he would later lose off the shores of the Hawaiian Islands which effectively ended his whaling career. No one would again trust him with command of a ship, and after one voyage on a merchant ship he decided that wasn't for him either and returned to Nantucket and become a night watchman, a position on the lowest rung of the social ladder, but one polar took to earnestly and enjoyed.
Speaker 1:Owen Chase would go on to write a book about the wreck, one that would be the official narrative of the events for many years, based on his own diary entries he kept during the voyage, along with a copy of the account written by Aaron Paddock that told him what happened on the other boats. This book at the time would serve two purposes One to help support his family financially and two as a sort of a resume for a first mate who desperately needed a new ship, and obviously some things were left out to help make him look better, along with stuff he wasn't present for which were kind of glossed over. He would later go on to enjoy the success that Pollard could never find, but not without some personal tragedies of his own. His wife would never recover after giving birth to their third child, leaving Chase alone at 27 with three kids to care for. He would later be remarried to Matthew Joy's widow and, after taking time off, chase would soon return to a successful whaling career.
Speaker 1:Nickerson and Ramsdale would both continue on different whaling ships. Ramsdale would eventually captain his own and Nickerson would eventually grow tired of whaling and captain a merchant ship. Benjamin Lawrence would captain a few ships before retiring and settling down on a farm on Nantucket. Seth Weeks and William Wright would stay on and serve on the Surrey. Wright would eventually be lost at sea in a hurricane in the West Indies and Weeks would eventually retire in Cape Cod where he would outlive the other survivors.
Speaker 1:Thomas Chappell returned to London and turned religious, trying to find spiritual meaning in the tragedy. He would eventually die on the island of Timur that was being plagued by a fever, and that was the terrible tragedy of the Essex. Thanks for listening and if you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your app of choice, and you can reach the show at historiesofdisaster at gmailcom with questions, comments or suggestions. Follow the show on social media like Facebook or Instagram and share the episode, because sharing is caring, and if there was more caring in the world, maybe history wouldn't be a disaster. Thanks and goodbye.