Owen Chase

author

Owen Chase

1797–1869

Best known as the first mate of the whaleship Essex, he survived one of the most infamous disasters in whaling history and later wrote a gripping firsthand account of it. That narrative helped shape the legend that would inspire Moby-Dick.

1 Audiobook

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket;

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket;

by Owen Chase

About the author

Born in Nantucket in 1797, Owen Chase worked as a whaler and became first mate of the Essex. In November 1820, the ship was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific, leaving Chase and the crew to endure a long, desperate struggle for survival at sea.

In 1821, he published Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, a firsthand account of the disaster and its aftermath. The book became the best-known record of the tragedy and is widely linked to Herman Melville's later imagination of Moby-Dick.

Chase later returned to life at sea and eventually captained whaling ships of his own. He died in 1869, but his vivid survival narrative remains one of the most unforgettable true stories from the age of sail.