Used book – The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex, Owen Chase

...................................................................... On August 12, 1819, the Essex set sail with twenty men on board, bound for a whale hunt in the Pacific. After several months of fishing, the ship, in the middle of the ocean, was attacked by a giant sperm whale. The vessel sank in a few minutes and the crew split into three lifeboats. Their odyssey would last ninety-three days. There would be eight survivors. Owen Chase, the first mate, published this book upon his return. A breathtaking account of whalers, of America's infancy, but also of exile and solitude, of man's animalistic capacity to endure, in the name of survival, what should not be endured. The story that gave birth to Moby Dick. "The reading of this prodigious story had an astonishing effect on me." Herman Melville.