Nantucket was the Texas of whale oil business. There were regularly a couple dozen square-rigged whale ships in the harbor, the long wharfs were stacked with oil barrels, the air was thick with the smell of oil, and most everything in the harbor was slick from it. It was said that Nantucket could be smelled long before it was seen when coming around the lighthouse at Brant Point. Today a wife is a “football widow” if her husband watches a couple hours of football, a couple days a week for a couple of months in the winter. Whaling trips lasted 2-3 years or more, and the 20-man crews were only home for three months before shipping out again. It may have made getting married a little easier; you didn’t really have to like your partner that much since you were not going to see much of each other. The schedule created a unique and peculiar social arrangement. The women formed groups that in some ways paralleled the grouping of their husbands aboard the ships. They met regularly, helped each other and had a social life that was defined by whaling, Quakerism, island life and a mutual loneliness. They largely ran the island government and many of the businesses. Letters home arrived months after being written. Whalers sometimes returned home to meet their two-year-old for the first time. Marrying outside the whaling industry was considered a step down socially and marrying off island just about inexplicable to some. Crewmen, including the captain were paid a share or lay from the profits, the crew receiving the smallest shares. A share of 1/200th or less might result after deductions, in a payment of $150 for two years’ work; this from a $25,000 to $30,000 shipment of oil. The ship owners made huge profits. The stocking of their whaleships was where they were notoriously thrifty. Crews often got barely enough food to survive. In the early days whale hunts may have lasted a few days, but as the ships went further, they lasted weeks, months and years. The ships were always full. They left with firewood, food, water, and equipment. The ships carried barrels that held 268 gallons; on the way out they were filled with sea water (to keep them tight) which was gradually replaced with oil. Other barrels were used to ship food. The crewmen were expected to help load the ship, although they were not paid for this. When a whale was sighted the whaleboats were lowered with oarsmen, boatsteerer and harpooner. These lightly built 20-foot open boats were rigged for sail, but were most often rowed and steered with an oar over the transom. Competition between boats was high and racing to the whale’s location to be the first to strike was part of the hunt. The half-inch planks on these lapstrake hulls made them easily rowed, but also easily smashed by a whale. Overturned or smashed whaleboats were not uncommon and ships carried extras. Once harpooned, the whale dragged the whaleboat until exhausted. The work ranged from monotonous to terrifying to deadly, and a crewman could experience all three in less than an hour. When a whale was being “cut in” the work was grueling. Standing on planks suspended over the side of the ship, the crew cut the blubber into heavy pieces that were brought to the tryworks. This big brick stove on deck just behind the foremast had a large iron pan where the blubber was rendered. Rendering was like frying bacon fat, the oil being drained into barrels. The tryworks produced wood smoke, smoke from the blubber, the stench of burning oil, slick and sooty surfaces. The oil was everywhere, the decks were awash undermining footing, but helping to preserve the wooden ship. It was said that the best way to move about the deck was to sit and slide. The cutting of blubber, rendering and storage all took place on a deck in motion. About 1,500-2,000 barrels filled a whaleship. A very large bull sperm whale might produce 100 barrels, but typically much less. Among the largest of whales, the sperm whale has a large cavity in the forward part of its head filled with as much as 35 barrels of oil. This oil was very clear, but when exposed to the air it became cloudy like sperm, which is where the whales name came from. The Essex By the late 1700s there were fewer whales in the Atlantic and ships began making the trip around the Horn at the tip of South America into the Pacific. The Amesbury, Massachusetts-built, 85-foot Essex was a typical whale ship of the time; ruggedly framed in oak with 4" thick oak planking and, like most, built off island in 1799. When it sailed from Nantucket in August of 1819 it had an experienced crew, a captain with his first command and an average number of green crew members. The Essex sailed to the Azores, then south to the Canary Islands off West Africa before heading for Cape Horn and the Pacific. On the way up the Chilean coast they hunted until they reached the Galapagos Islands in October. They got provisions there then sailed west to the offshore grounds. On October 10 on the equator, at a point about as far from land as they could get, 1500 miles from the Galapagos, with whaleboats out, they spotted a large sperm whale, a very large sperm whale. The bull was 100 yards away, apparently watching the Essex when it dove, surfaced thirty-five yards from the Essex, picked up speed plowing water with its massive head as it aimed for the port bow. It struck with such force that every man on deck was knocked off his feet. The ship traveling at 5 knots was given sternway of 3 knots, forcing water through the cabin windows. First Mate Owen Chase estimated it to be 85 feet long. This was the first known attack on a ship by a whale in the Nantucket whale fishery. The whale swam under the Essex and briefly lingered stunned beside the hull. It then moved off 600 yards, began thrashing the water and quickly crossed the bow to windward. He turned and again headed for the Essex, at twice the speed of his first attack, throwing up a huge spray from his pounding 20-foot wide tail. Again he slammed the port bow. He continued pushing with his tail, forcing the 238-ton ship backwards and sending water over the transom. They were taking on water and the other whale boat was launched. The crew watched as the Essex rolled on its side. They returned to grab up some hardtack, water and a few tortoises they had picked up in the Galapagos. As they moved away they watched the ship go down. Owen Chase and Captain Pollard disagreed on the course to take in their over-loaded boats. The prevailing westerly winds might take them to the Marquesas Islands. But Chase wanted to sail east for South America, claiming the Marquesas were inhabited by cannibals. The Pacific Ocean at the time was virtually unknown territory. There were many tales of cannibalism in the South Seas told by Nantucket whalers. In spite of their almost continuous life at sea, including the Pacific Ocean, they had little knowledge of the geography. This fear was enough to sway the crew and Pollard did not push his case. They sailed east as Chase proposed, but would discover that not all the cannibals were on the South Seas islands. The boats were eventually separated. In open boats the equatorial sun soon dehydrated them. The hardtack diet was a bit low in fat and some of it salt water damaged, which only made them thirstier. Day after day, week after week, if it was not the doldrums, it was a storm that would drive them up and down swells, soak them and threaten to capsize the boat in the middle of the night. With ragged clothes and no cover they were soon slumped in the bottom of their boats looking like skeletons in brown shrink wrap. The tortoises were killed, cut up and cooked in their overturned shells. Then it was back to getting weaker, thirstier and more desperate. When one of the men died, the plans to bury him at sea were interrupted by the decision to eat him. As one after another died they were eaten by the others. Sailing with salt-incrusted and ragged sail, Pollard and Chase’s boats approached the South American coast. Three months after the whale attack, both were picked up by passing ships within a week of each other. The five survivors returned to Nantucket. Petroleum |
