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THE WHALESHIP ESSEX set off from Nantucket in Massaschusetts in 1819, for a two-year journey to the west coast of South America.
Only a handful of the men on board that ship made it out of that journey alive.
In November 1820, thousands of miles from their destination, the ship and crew were struck by a devastating whale attack. It was no ordinary attack – a large whale, often described as a monster, rammed the boat, battering it and trying to bring it under.
After its attack, it disappeared into the sea, leaving the Essex to sink. Though the boat sank, 20 sailors survived, along with three whaleboats.
As the ship’s first mate, Owen Chase, recalled:
The ship brought up as suddenly and violently as if she had struck a rock, and trembled for a few seconds like a leaf. We looked at each other with perfect amazement, deprived almost of the power of speech. Many minutes elapsed before we were able to realize the dreadful accident; during which time he passed under the ship, grazing her keel as he went along, came up alongside of her to leeward, and lay on the top of the water (apparently stunned with the violence of the blow) for the space of a minute; he then suddenly started off, in a direction to leeward.
The shipmates were stunned by what had happened, said Chase:
Amazement and despair now wholly took possession of us. We contemplated the frightful situation the ship lay in, and thought with horror upon the sudden and dreadful calamity that had overtaken us. We looked upon each other, as if to gather some consolatory sensation from an interchange of sentiments, but every countenance was marked with the paleness of despair. Not a word was spoken for several minutes by any of us
They were soon an even more dangerous adventure, as they left the sunken ship and decided not to head to the Marquesas islands, but towards South America.
Surviving at sea
As their food and water ran out, they took to drinking their own urine. All the while, their whaleboats needed patching up. They landed on Henderson Island, which was uninhabited, but managed to live on birds, eggs and crabs.
But they knew this wasn’t enough, and headed off for Easter Island. They drifted too far, and turned for Más a Tierra island. But the men began to die. Some of the men ended up being executed and eaten by their shipmates (like what happened to this Limerick cabinboy).
In the end, some of the men – after their terrible, harrowing journey – survived. An account of what happened was recounted by survivors Owen Chase, the ship’s first mate, and Thomas Nickerson, a cabin boy on board the ship.
Their tale went on to inspire Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick, and now it has gone on to be turned into a movie directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, called In The Heart of the Sea.
The film also stars big-name Irish actors Brendan Gleeson and Cillian Murphy.
The film is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s his bestselling book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, which is about the maritime disaster. As the New York Times put it, Philbrick’s book “begins where Moby Dick ends”.
The film will be released by Warner Bros in Ireland on St Stephen’s Day. Chris Hemsworth leads the cast as the vessel’s veteran first mate, Owen Chase, with Gleeson as elder Tom Nickerson and Murphy as second mate Matthew Joy. It also features up-and-coming Irish actor Sam Keeley.
Ben Whishaw stars as novelist Herman Melville, who read Chase’s book and tried to find out more about what happened – his inquiries helped bring the story to light. Tom Holland stars as young seaman Tom Nickerson, and Gleeson plays the elder Nickerson.
In the Heart of the Sea explores the encounter with the famed whale, and its harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s crew is pushed to their limits in order to survive.
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Love Tesco – they quietly raise prices on items by a cent or two – leave it for a few weeks, then announce a ‘price drop’! lol classic
One of the last times i was in Tesco you could buy a 2 litre bottle of cola for €1 or a 2 litre twin pack for €2.50…go figure
If Tesco were to hand out a weeks free groceries I would not toutch them . Terrible bad in handleing
Apologies cannot finish this text
Did you need to catch that plane Alan?
Yes OK but Tesco are threatening to cut wages for long term staff . Am I correct ?
Are they back selling horse meat?
@akan scott – Yes they’re cutting the pay for long service staff (following agreement, of course) – An ever popular practice for many Irish Companies – Its called AGEISM.
What about all the cash they built up from yours of dodging paying taxes etc…….oh wait the lads at the top want us all pitying them and tesco, even though they are currently trying to screw over their Irish work force. Ya sorry lads no sympathy here
Every LIDL helps
As they’ve registered loss for a number of years they can weigh that loss against profits for a few years to avoid paying tax, increased profits will then allow them to invest for growth and increased employment will lead to more tax into government coffers.
Or something.
It’s deceptive… None of that loss is from trading and operations. They declared £7 billion in ‘one off losses’ last year. Took a write down on the value of their property portfolio by almost £4 billion and wrote off other losses from closing their USA ‘fresh and easy’ connivence stores as well as online and certain Asian markets.
Investors beware… It actually looks like their profits fell further £600m to £450m if you exclude such exceptional items on the balance sheet.
Hmm…it’s as kosher as Paddy’s pigs.
All their beef is Halal, the Hijrah must be good for business.
Aldi profit in the world wouldn’t make me shop in Tesco.
Found a new recipe for cooking the books have they?
Oh, this is sure going to help their position when they sit down with the strikers…
I don’t like Tesco anymore, they’re too inconsistent. You can walk into any Dunnes, or even SuperValu when you want a specific item, but you can’t do the same in Tesco, because all of the stores seem to be different.
I tried to get around this by asking my local Tesco to stock a particular item. After three attempts over several weeks, they finally got the item in stock. When they sold them all, they didn’t bother re-stocking, and they haven’t bothered their arse since. If I drive to another Tesco 20 odd miles away, I find shelves full of what the other store isn’t stocking. Tesco can take a hike and stop pretending that they’re listening to their customers.
Local Tesco is manky. Gone off fruit. Gone off cheese. Rotten dirty shop.
Surprised they turned a profit here as with all the honouring of competitors vouchers from newspapers has to have hurt the bottom line, I must have saved €200 with Aldi and lidl vouchers!
Hate tesco, no price ever the same from month to month. Keep changing them so as we don’t know how much things really are. Rip off
Ah now i see why they want to screw their employees but seeking wage decreases and terms and conditions. They make millions but want more. So buck the workers
Back in profit but trying to cut pay. Typical corporate entity
I used to enjoy shopping at tesco in Dublin but since they put in them awful self payment checkout leading to job loses I don’t shop there and won’t until they remove them.thats why I don’t go into d banks anymore either
Liam they are extra checkouts , nobody lost their jobs over them being installed .
Back in profits and still trying to cut wages. Typical corporate entity
That’s a shame the way they treat there staff
Lowering wages of their staff with these massive profits. Tesco can get fu*ked
F**K Tesco
They still squeezing small businesses out except our family business we will fight them & we are ahead on our quality Irish grown plants not Deutch that Tesco claim are Irish .
As a retailer it makes me happy & sad to see them letting plants drying out then dumping them . Tesco are not a good operator in Irl in comparison to uk . Supervalu are undergoing revamps off most stores & putting the Superquinn touch back to them finally .
Tesco have lowered SOME of their prices since 2012. Big deal.
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