Owen Chase
Owen Chase (* 1797 in Nantucket ; † June 11, 1869 ) was an American seaman from Nantucket and first mate of the New England whaler Essex , who on November 20, 1820 at the position 0 ° 41 ′ S , 118 ° 0 ′ W in the Pacific was attacked by a very large sperm whale , capsized and finally made it sink.
Life
After the sinking of the Essex
Owen Chase and the rest of the crew were initially able to save themselves in three boats with water and provisions and tried to reach the South American coast. Of the originally twenty crew members, only five were rescued after a three-month grueling journey in the fragile open boats. Three crew members who had remained on the lonely island of Henderson in the meantime were also rescued. One of the three boats was lost.
This story is described by Owen Chase in his book Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, of Nantucket; Which Was Attacked and Finally Destroyed by a Large Spermaceti-Whale, in the Pacific Ocean; with an Account of the Unparalleled Sufferings of the Captain and Crew during a Space of Ninety-Three Days at Sea, in Open Boats; in the Years 1819 & 1820. New York 1821.
Continuation of seafaring and whaling
In December 1821, Chase was hired as chief mate on the Florida whaler , which left New Bedford on December 20, 1821 and returned there on November 26, 1823. In August 1825, Chase went back to sea as the captain of the Winslow and returned by ship on June 20, 1827.
After that, Chase stayed in Nantucket for two years while overseeing the construction of his own ship, the Charles Carrol . With this he set sail on October 10, 1832 and after three and a half years returned to the home port in March 1836. Another four-year voyage with the Charles Carrol ended on February 15, 1840 in the port of Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts .
Connection to Melville
Twenty years after the sinking of the Essex , Herman Melville got Chase's book through a chance encounter with Stephan (according to other reports, the young man's first name was William), the sixteen-year-old son of O. Chase. He told the young Herman Melville the story of his father. Melville related the portrayal of the sperm whale attack among other real events in his book Moby Dick , published in 1851 .
expenditure
- Owen Chase: The wreck of the whaleship Essex: a narrative account . Harcourt Brace & Co., San Diego 1999, ISBN 0-15-600689-8 .
- Owen Chase: The Fall of the Essex . The Hanse Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-434-52565-3 .
- Owen Chase: Narrative of .... (reprint). New York 1999, ISBN 0-15-600689-8 .
- Owen Chase: The Fall of the Essex . Piper, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-492-23514-X .
- Owen Chase: Days of horror and despair. Ed. Michael Klein, Morio-Verlag, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-945424-71-1 .
literature
- Thomas Nickerson : The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats . The Nantucket Historical Society (Massachusetts), Penguin Books, New York 1984, ISBN 0-14-043796-7 .
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Nathaniel Philbrick : In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex . Viking Penguin, New York 2000, ISBN 0-670-89157-6 .
- German by Andrea Kann and Klaus Fritz : In the heart of the sea. The Whaler's Last Voyage Essex . Karl Blessing , Munich 2000, ISBN 3-89667-093-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ RD Madison (ed.): W . Owen Chase Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the WhaleShip Essex 1821. ABC-CLIO, 2016, ISBN 1-4408-5008-9 .
- ↑ findagrave Owen Chase
- ↑ Thomas Farel Heffernan; Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex Wesleyan University Press 1990 pp. 120-134; ISBN 978-0-8195-6244-9
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chase, Owen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sailor, chief mate of the New England whaler Essex |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1797 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nantucket |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 11, 1869 |