Rating: 
Summary: Harrowing, well-written, and true.
Review: "The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex" is much more than just the inspiration for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." It stands alone as a remarkable account of survival in a hostile environment. It's probably difficult for modern readers to truly grasp the impact First Mate Owen Chase felt when his ship the Essex sank in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, leaving 20 men to fend for themselves in three frail whaling boats. In 1820, the loss of the ship meant that Chase and his men were truly on their own. His account and shock reflect the enormity of what losing a ship meant to these men. The ship was their world and without it, they faced an ardorous journey. Chase also accurately captures the shock of seeing a whale attack his ship twice. An experienced whaler, Chase watched dumbfounded as a creature he always thought to be gentle and placid appear to deliberately sink the Essex. Chase has managed to balance these feelings of anguish and fear with determination to survive. His story also vividly recounts a bygone time when Nantucket whalers seemed to own the seas, and industry at home depended on the oil these men brought back. We seem to forget that whaling and its fruits were an essential part of early American commerace and life. This book puts Chase's account of his survival clearly in context with its times. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, well-written, and true.
Review: "The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex" is much more than just the inspiration for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." It stands alone as a remarkable account of survival in a hostile environment. It's probably difficult for modern readers to truly grasp the impact First Mate Owen Chase felt when his ship the Essex sank in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, leaving 20 men to fend for themselves in three frail whaling boats. In 1820, the loss of the ship meant that Chase and his men were truly on their own. His account and shock reflect the enormity of what losing a ship meant to these men. The ship was their world and without it, they faced an ardorous journey. Chase also accurately captures the shock of seeing a whale attack his ship twice. An experienced whaler, Chase watched dumbfounded as a creature he always thought to be gentle and placid appear to deliberately sink the Essex. Chase has managed to balance these feelings of anguish and fear with determination to survive. His story also vividly recounts a bygone time when Nantucket whalers seemed to own the seas, and industry at home depended on the oil these men brought back. We seem to forget that whaling and its fruits were an essential part of early American commerace and life. This book puts Chase's account of his survival clearly in context with its times. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Wreck of the Whaleship Essex
Review: I really liked this book. I recommend skipping the intro (gives away too much) and reading the glossary in the back first. Read it before you see "Castaway". Since it was written at 1821, it is an adventure but gives a real sense of the time. It's a fast read and appealed to me even though it may be a guy book.
Rating:
Summary: "My god, this really happened"
Review: Just imagine the unthinkable:- a whale, that most placid animal, suddenly turns on its tormentors with malice apparent in its intent and within a few minutes, reduces the ship, not the boat that harpooned it, to a sinking wreck, a thousand miles from any land. The subsequent journey to safety of the eight survivors is recounted by the first mate in graphic detail and with great literary skill; you have to admire the fortitude displayed by Mr. Chase in keeping an accurate log, even in the extremes of privation and heat exhaustion, as well as the psychological assault of that ultimate horror (at that time) of cannibalism. Put in their position, would I do the same - absolutely! It speaks volumes that very little was said about the Essex party, whereas the Donner party were unjustly vilified for doing exactly the same thing to preserve the remaining members of their company. I can do no better justice to this book than to quote Gary Kinder:- "...settle back into that overstuffed leather chair and let the most amazing story in the annals of the sea transport you to a different time, a different breed, an experience few could believe...".
Rating:
Summary: Way better than Moby Dick for adventure and drama
Review: Moby Dick is so dry for young readers with all the details of life on a whaler, this book is much more the adventure, the what happens when the whale decides that he's had enough. How men endure when they run out of food, then water, then people start to die. It's a fairly fast read and Owen gives a fairly good account of the problems and the horror of the men as they watch the whale ram their ship.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational
Review: Nothing can be as inspirational as much as man's plight of survival against nature. The ability to persevere and to extend on'e spirit to the maximum truly does provide something to look forward to and to fight for. Owen Chase's short memoir on just that holds true to everything of how the human spirit is the most unrelenting of all creatures on God's green Earth. Man maybe nature's favorite son, but when it comes to hardships, he is hardly found lacking and this book clearly demonstrates that. Chase draws up the facts straight. He takes the reader for a very mellow ride when compared to the horrors that he and the other 19 men of the Essex sustained. Since the book was written in the mid 19th century, that was the norm in the style of writing, especially when it was set as a non-fiction memoir. Through it all though, keen readers can clearly picture what Chase and his men have been through and the hardships that the 5 final survivals of the ship lived through. This impassivity just could not be held in when Chase started describing the severe hunger that they were facing and the acts that they had to commit in order to survive the ordeal. Not just feeding off the non-living, but actually killing for sustenance. It's when that tale is being said that the reader can feel the pain, that Chase went through, not only acting upon it, but actually writing about it as well. It's very hard to actually imagine the suffering of such men at first, but when they had to regress to their primal self, it is that horror that just leaves the survivors scarred for life. Chase's recounts of what he and his crew have been to echo in the deep corners of humanity. Pointing what man would commit to survive and his ability to live through the hardships of the unknown. He also points throughout the whole ordeal, how small and weak man really is, not really in control of his life and situations as he would like to believe. That through it all, his fate is in the hands of a Higher Power. In the hands of the Almighty God.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: There's nothing wrong with this book except that there is a more comprehensive collection published by Penguin Classics titled, "The Loss Of The Ship Essex, Sunk By A Whale." The Penguin Classic includes not only Owen Chase's story in his own words but also contains that of Thomas Nickerson a fellow shipmate of the Essex. Nickerson's account has been lost for decades and reading Chase's account alone would be cheating yourself of a real treat since Nickerson is by far the better storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: There's nothing wrong with this book except that there is a more comprehensive collection published by Penguin Classics titled, "The Loss Of The Ship Essex, Sunk By A Whale." The Penguin Classic includes not only Owen Chase's story in his own words but also contains that of Thomas Nickerson a fellow shipmate of the Essex. Nickerson's account has been lost for decades and reading Chase's account alone would be cheating yourself of a real treat since Nickerson is by far the better storyteller.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting But Lacks Depth
Review: This brief account gives an interesting insight into the ordeal of the survivors of the Essex. We learn about their physical struggles against nature and their strategy for rescue. What's missing from this book is the thoughts of Mr. Chase or those of his companions. We find out what they did but not much about what they thought. Being adrift for a two month period gives one much time for thought. It would have been nice to hear about some of those thoughts. However, perhaps it is unfair to look to an early nineteenth century sailor as a source of profound thoughts or their literary expression.
Rating:
Summary: Good quick read
Review: This is an excellent book to take on a plane or read on a day at the beach. At a little over a hundred pages, it can be read in one sitting, yet it's the narrative of an actual event-the ship wreck that inspired the novel, Moby Dick. Best for me was the glossary in the back that explains some of those terms I always read in those old nautical novels, but never understood.
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