Anyone who knows me well will already realise that I have a longstanding and very odd interest in 19th century whaling, which recently led to a very long trip from one sea surrounded island to another. That is, from the Isle of Wight, all the way to Nantucket, which is the cradle for many great American novels, from Edgar Allan Poe’s bizarre story, ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’, to the equally famous and equally strange ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville.
(David Lupton’s illustration from the folio edition of ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’. The arrival into the shop of this copy is my excuse for writing this blog.)
These two great writers of American literature were drawn to this island by an interest in the same true story, which had been widely publicised by the American press during the 1820s. That is the history of the whaleship named Essex, which would later be immortalised in the 2015 film ‘In the Heart of the Sea’. A summary of that adventure (for want of a better word), written by the Nantucket Historical Association, is below:
‘In November 1820, an enraged sperm whale rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1,300 miles from the nearest land. Twenty sailors survived the attack and quickly outfitted their three small whaleboats to make a journey to safety. They had limited food and water, and could only hope that their supplies would last them as they slowly sailed for land across miles of open water.
Three months later, five emaciated survivors were picked up by passing ships, three more remained stranded on a deserted island, and twelve men were dead–seven of them eaten in desperation by their starving shipmates. Their tale of choices, survival, and leadership would stun the maritime community.’
(The outside of the Nantucket Whaling Museum, where I was lucky enough to attend their lectures about the whaleship Essex)
Owen Chase, one of the survivors of the tragedy and the first mate of the Essex, would go on to write an influential and widely-read account of his own experience of the disaster, named ‘Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex’ (it’s easy to see where Poe got his inspiration). Drawn to this tragedy, Herman Melville would eventually meet with Owen Chase’s son to discuss his father’s experience of the shipwreck.
(Cover detail from the copy of Owen Chase’s account, available in the shop.)
So, what made the story of the whaleship Essex so fundamental to American literature?
Charles Olson, one of America’s most innovative twentieth century poets, tries to tackle the influence of the Essex disaster on American literature, and to analyse the difference between Herman Melville’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s two approaches to it in his book ‘Call me Ishmael’.
(Mead Schaeffer’s illustration from a 1926 edition of ‘Omoo’ by Herman Melville.)
Charles Olson sees the Pacific Ocean as an extension of America’s great plains and suggests that ‘the American dream’ (otherwise known as the American desire to travel west and to colonise empty space) eventually drives its sufferers into ships, where they attempt to conquer this westwards travelling ocean.
He writes as follows:
‘Some men ride on such space, others have to fasten themselves like a tent stake to survive. As I see it, Poe dug in and Melville mounted. They are the alternatives.’
(A second David Lupton illustration from the folio edition of ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’.)
Owen Chase, Charles Olson, Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe however, do all share one thing in common. Each of these renditions of the Essex story all contain a warning. The drive to take over open space and pit yourself against nature normally results in a) you losing and b) you not having a very nice time. In our own age of expansion (consider Elon Musk’s flights into space), it is worth remembering the closing lines of Owen Chase’s account of the disaster: “And may God for ever preserve us from a similar fate.”
(A lucky or an unlucky charm? This was a gift from my Mum after finishing my second MA dissertation about whaling during the 19th century)