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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Account of the Sinking of the Ship Essex [Transcript] |
| Reference | MSS 106/Folder 2 |
| Library | Nantucket Historical Association |
| Collection | Thomas Nickerson Collection, 1819-1876 |
| Date | n.d. |
| Description | Typed transcript of Thomas Nickerson's account of the voyage and wreck of the Essex. Nickerson had been fifteen at the time and his story covers the whaling expedition, the destruction of the ship by a whale and the crew's attempts to survive. They were left with three small boats with which to get to land, and suffered from such a lack of provisions that they resorted to eating their dead companions. |
| Document Type | Journal |
| Theme(s) | Trade and Commerce |
| Keywords | poem, whaling, labour, rig, crew, seaman duties, captain, order, manners and customs, seasickness, storm, damage, supplies, food, whale oil, trade, shipwreck, salvage, repairs, clothes, discipline, sealife, birds, provisions, sailor's life, scurvy, money, dance, music, women, Christian, priest, letter, mail, games, flora and fauna, fire, castaway, survivor, ordeal, starvation, thirst, death, mental health, cannibal, rescue, casting of lots |
| Countries | USA; Cape Verde; Chile; Peru |
| Places | Azores; Falkland Islands; Isla de Los Estados; Alejandro Selkirk Island; Henderson Island; Santa Maria Island |
| Ports | Nantucket, USA; Talcahuano, Chile; Paita, Peru; Valparaiso, Chile |
| Ships | Essex, Archimedes, Aurora, Mary, Indian, Dauphin, Surrey |
| People | Paul Macy; George Pollard; Thomas Nickerson |
| Additional Information |
When the Essex sank in 1820, cabin boy Thomas Nickerson was just fifteen years old. He survived the tragedy, and went on to captain several merchant vessels. In the mid-1870s, Nickerson authored his own account of the tragedy, and sent his manuscript to a professional writer, Leon Lewis, hoping it would be refined and published. Instead, Nickerson’s story was lost for some eighty-four years, until 1960, when the 105-page manuscript was uncovered in an attic in New York. It was returned to Nantucket in 1980, and finally published in 1984. Please note that some of the metadata for this document has been drawn from the Nantucket Historical Association catalogue. |
| Copyright | Nantucket Historical Association |
