Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex: The Complete Illustrated Edition

Read Owen Chase's memoir which inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and the 2015 film, In the Heart of the Sea.\nOwen Chase was the first mate on the ill-fated American whaling ship Essex, which was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1820. The crew spent months at sea in leaking boats and endured the blazing sun, attacks by killer whales, and lack of food. The men were forced to resort to cannibalism before the final eight survivors were rescued. Herman Melville based his 1851 novel, Moby-Dick, on this sinking.\nChase recorded the tale of the ship's sinking and the following events with harrowing clarity in the Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex:\n\""I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of h.