About the Essex.

I was looking for some information about the Essex,

the whaleship who was attacked and sunk by a

sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1820.

Herman Melville based his novel 'Moby-Dick'

on this incident but the real story is even more

horrible, look here too.

The Essex was a normal whaling ship of the early

1800s; it was 26m long and had 3masts; it also

carried five smaller whaling boats.

The drawing on the top comes from the notebook

of Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy of the Essex;

his account was found in the 1960s and is called:

The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and

the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats.

The writing below the drawing says:

"Here lay our beautiful ship, a floating and dismal

wreck"

It's gonna be difficult for me to offer a nice story for

the Age of Discovery project; could be I'll make one

with an happy ending for both the whale and the ship :-)

The second photo is me on my 'deck'.

I could have said something like "There might be

a sea over there, behind those buildings" but I

didn't, it was my sister who came up with that idea.

I aged the photo here, found via Fine Little Day.

The beautiful Japanese watercolor of a whaler comes from here.

The press cutting is the Far West, that's not a whaler,

but I liked the photo.

Good Night and Sweet Dreams!