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Real Men, Real Sailors, "The Essex" movie Trailor
Wikipedia has a nice write up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
Real Men, Real Sailors "The Essex" The Movie
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Real Men, Real Sailors, "The Essex" movie Trailor
Wikipedia has a nice write up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
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Looks interesting. Ron Howard has done a lot of very good films. In this day and age you might find a lot of people cheering for the whale.
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That includes me
. An awesome, intelligent and ferocious creature.
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According to wikipedia, the actual whale that sunk Essex lived- see the wikipedia attachmnet in the OP. The whale rammed the boat and the boat sunk- the whale was never seen again (I hope it lived). Yea the whale was the hero, protecting his women.
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From Wikipedia:
Essex (whaleship) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Essex Whale attack:
Thousands of miles from the coast of South America, tension was mounting among the officers of Essex, in particular between Pollard and Chase. The launched whaleboats had come up empty for days, and on November 16, Chase's boat had been "dashed...literally in pieces" by a whale surfacing directly beneath it. But at eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts and the three remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a sperm whale pod.[6]
On the leeward side of Essex, Chase's boat harpooned a whale, but its tail struck the boat and opened up a seam, resulting in their having to cut his line from the whale and put back to the ship for repairs. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate's boats had each harpooned a whale and were being dragged towards the horizon in what was known as a Nantucket sleighride. Chase was repairing the damaged boat on board when the crew observed a whale, that was much larger than normal (alleged to be around 85 feet (26 m)), acting strangely. It lay motionless on the surface with its head facing the ship, then began to move towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. The whale rammed the ship and then went under, battering it and causing it to tip from side to side. Finally surfacing close on the starboard side of Essex with its head by the bow and tail by the stern, the whale appeared to be stunned and motionless. Chase prepared to harpoon it from the deck when he realized that its tail was only inches from the rudder, which the whale could easily destroy if provoked by an attempt to kill it. Fearing to leave the ship stuck thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he relented. The whale recovered and swam several hundred yards ahead of the ship and turned to face the bow.
"I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship." —Owen Chase.[7]
The whale crushed the bow like an eggshell, driving the 238-ton vessel backwards. The whale finally disengaged its head from the shattered timbers and swam off, never to be seen again, leaving the Essex quickly going down by the bow. Chase and the remaining sailors frantically tried to add rigging to the only remaining whaleboat, while the steward ran below to gather up whatever navigational aids he could find.
"The captain's boat was the first that reached us. He stopped about a boat's length off, but had no power to utter a single syllable; he was so completely overpowered with the spectacle before him. He was in a short time, however, enabled to address the inquiry to me, "My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?" I answered, "We have been stove by a whale." —Owen Chase.
Essex (whaleship) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Essex Whale attack:
Thousands of miles from the coast of South America, tension was mounting among the officers of Essex, in particular between Pollard and Chase. The launched whaleboats had come up empty for days, and on November 16, Chase's boat had been "dashed...literally in pieces" by a whale surfacing directly beneath it. But at eight in the morning of November 20, 1820, the lookout sighted spouts and the three remaining whaleboats set out to pursue a sperm whale pod.[6]
On the leeward side of Essex, Chase's boat harpooned a whale, but its tail struck the boat and opened up a seam, resulting in their having to cut his line from the whale and put back to the ship for repairs. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate's boats had each harpooned a whale and were being dragged towards the horizon in what was known as a Nantucket sleighride. Chase was repairing the damaged boat on board when the crew observed a whale, that was much larger than normal (alleged to be around 85 feet (26 m)), acting strangely. It lay motionless on the surface with its head facing the ship, then began to move towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. The whale rammed the ship and then went under, battering it and causing it to tip from side to side. Finally surfacing close on the starboard side of Essex with its head by the bow and tail by the stern, the whale appeared to be stunned and motionless. Chase prepared to harpoon it from the deck when he realized that its tail was only inches from the rudder, which the whale could easily destroy if provoked by an attempt to kill it. Fearing to leave the ship stuck thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he relented. The whale recovered and swam several hundred yards ahead of the ship and turned to face the bow.
"I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship." —Owen Chase.[7]
The whale crushed the bow like an eggshell, driving the 238-ton vessel backwards. The whale finally disengaged its head from the shattered timbers and swam off, never to be seen again, leaving the Essex quickly going down by the bow. Chase and the remaining sailors frantically tried to add rigging to the only remaining whaleboat, while the steward ran below to gather up whatever navigational aids he could find.
"The captain's boat was the first that reached us. He stopped about a boat's length off, but had no power to utter a single syllable; he was so completely overpowered with the spectacle before him. He was in a short time, however, enabled to address the inquiry to me, "My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?" I answered, "We have been stove by a whale." —Owen Chase.
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There is a great documentary on Netflix about the history of Nantucket whaling (I'm too lazy to go look it up) which includes the story of the Essex. It's one hell of a story. It's a good thing we found substitutes for burning whale oil or we would have wiped them off the face of the earth completely. Can you imagine? What a shame that would have been.
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Hey thanks, I got netflix so see if I can find it. Any idea if it is a documentary or movie. Sometimes hard to locate stuff on Netflix, looked the other day for shows of interest and did no see anything on Nantucket whaling. Imagine going out on a ship like the Essex where the plan was to be gone for 2.5 years. No communication and great possibility you will never come back due to the dangers involved in such a trip.
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Oh here you go. It was PBS....
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World . American Experience . WGBH | PBS
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It is an interesting book. Howard did Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind along with some decent, lightweight stuff like Splash. Guess you can't win them all, but I agree that Da Vinci Code had so much wasted potential. Any time you can make Tom Hanks give a horrible performance it is special, but in all the wrong ways.
We had a close encounter with a sperm whale (35' or so) several hundred miles north of the USVI. We were motoring under autopilot on an almost perfectly calm sea heading south and the whale was heading east on the surface. We would have collided if he (she? it?) had not altered course at the last minute. The whale passed within less than 10 feet of our stern. I chastised June later because she just screamed (only time I have ever heard her scream), rather than, "Thar' she blows!" or something similar. Perhaps it was an ESL issue.
We had a close encounter with a sperm whale (35' or so) several hundred miles north of the USVI. We were motoring under autopilot on an almost perfectly calm sea heading south and the whale was heading east on the surface. We would have collided if he (she? it?) had not altered course at the last minute. The whale passed within less than 10 feet of our stern. I chastised June later because she just screamed (only time I have ever heard her scream), rather than, "Thar' she blows!" or something similar. Perhaps it was an ESL issue.
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Ah yes .... OK I'll give you those two.
We had a Humpback come up on our stern and the Wombet had, shall we say, a moment . Admittedly they do look somewhat like a bloody submarine, all ahead full, but she (the whale i.e) knew what she was doing.
We had a Humpback come up on our stern and the Wombet had, shall we say, a moment . Admittedly they do look somewhat like a bloody submarine, all ahead full, but she (the whale i.e) knew what she was doing.
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Yea gotta watch them whales- dodge them all the time in the winter on North Shore of Oahu, even the surfers need to watch out. Did have an interesting experience transiting the Cook Straight on a 81 foot motor sail. It was middle of night and nerly perfect calm air and sea. We had the feeling of a presence in the water and then the boat rocked side to side. It was not a collision, but a large pressure wave created by somthing swimming next to us, whatever it was it was big, maybe even a blue whale, I wish it had been daylight so we could see what it was.
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In a touristy panga in Baha we ran up the back of a surfacing gray whale. Fell off on our side and full of water. In the Beaufort missed a big Bowhead by a meter.Both doing 6 knots on same course.He was really surprised too but missed me with the tail.What a fluke!
Have read book as well as book by 1st mate Owen Chase "The Wreck of Whaleship Essex" thinking there was another 1st hand account, written years later, by cabin boy from Essex. Loss of the Essex was inspiration for Moby Dick. Herman Melville was a whaler in his earlier years, his ship met mid ocean with another whaler and as was custom, if weather allowed, crews exchanged news/shared a meal and stories...Owen Chase's son was aboard and told Melville story of the Essex. I believe, Moby Dick published years later, was not a success during melvilles lifetime.
Yes, they comment angrily about whalers at the trailer site. They want people always to live freezing in the dark.
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