Nightmare Now

Thirsty boys and Land Hos The Essex whaling disaster part 2

Episode Summary

The crew of the Essex does their best to survive against more whales, the sea, sun, and thirst. When they find an island things finally start to look up, at least at first.

Episode Notes

Whaleship Essex part 2

  1. Intro
    1. Recap from last week on dragon ball Z/ quick mention that this is a 2?, 3? Parter
      1. One of the most famous maritime disasters that inspired moby dick
      2. Whaling was a lucrative business that kept the industrial revolution lubed up and bright
      3. 1819 the Essex took off from nantucket , mass, the whaling capital of the world, mostly with new crew. 
      4. Right from the get go faced hardship, almost knocked over, extra whaleboats destroyed.
      5. A dearth of whales and an unsuccessful hunt, followed by a few successful ones.
      6. A mysterious captain tells them of the promised land, the offshore ground when they stop in south america, and the location is thousands of miles into the deep pacific.  
      7. They take a detour to cause an apocalypse on the galapagos islands
      8. When they reach the offshore ground they are attacked by hellbent whale, for unknown reasons and the Essex begins to sink. 
    2. That’s where we left it so lets get into it
  2. Before the sinking
    1. Collecting supplies
      1. They spent two days tied up to the essex while the tides ripped it apart
      2. Searching for more supplies by day and cursing the world for their predicament at night. 
      3. By the second day the essex was in pieces, and sharp ones too, watches had to be set to avoid punctures in the boat
      4. All around them the yellowy whale oil floated and stank and coated everything, a cruel irony, what they had come for, and that the essex was like a whale, on it’s side expunging the oil
    2. Deciding on a plan
      1. On the third day they had drifted some fifty miles away from south america during a stormy night
      2. Things were not gonna get better next to the boat, so a council was called.
      3. Pollard, chase and joy gathered on one boat and talked options
        1. Head west, but cannibals so the mates overruled that 
        2. Head back the way they came past the galapagos, but that’s against the wind, and the current
        3. Head northwest to hawaii, but storms and nightmarchers keep them away there
        4.  Head south for other smaller islands and eventually the west coast of south america. 
        5. Before deciding on option #4
        6. They would have been fine going southwest probably. Psychologists say this shit is not good in a disaster until things get really fucking dire to improve morale. People NEED to be told what to do. Fishy mate, cuck captain
    3. Inventory and crew
      1. Food for around 60 days, Consisting of:
        1. Hardtack
          1. They rationed 6 oz of it day about a ¼ of the calorica needs of a 5’8” 145 lb dude 
        2. Tortises were 4500 calories per man if they were slaughtered.
          1. THEY WERE JUST CHILLING MOST OF THE RIDE, LAST OF THEIR SPECIES.
        3. Tobacco, the a whaler would normally go through 70 fucking lbs of tobacco on a trip, so most of them got nicky sick withdrawal. 
        4. Crew overall was 9 nantucketers, 5 coofs, six blacks
      2. Each boat had 200 lbs hardtack, 65 gals, h2o 2 tortoises, chase and joy got a pistol, pollard took a musket. 
      3. Pollard’s boat
        1. Crew
        2. 5/7 nantucketer,  2 coofs
        3. Owen Coffin, barzalli ray, charles ramsdell
      4. Chase’s Boat
        1. Crew
        2. 2 nantucketers, 2 cape cod coofs, 2 blacks
      5. Joy’s Boat
        1. Another cruel irony to be on the joy boat
        2. Crew
        3. Himself, 1 coof, 4 blacks,
    4. Setting up the whaleboats
      1. Sails with sewing needles
      2. Building up the sides to keep water out, critical, without it they would sink later.
      3. Keeping the food dry-ish
    5. Nightfall? 
      1. Met with despair compared to the hope of the day
  3. Shipping out
    1. Despite their efforts the food became soaked with seawater, causing every bite of salty bread to dehydrate them further.
    2. Heading for south america was dependant on their own efforts rather than the chance of a whaleboat. 
    3. Dead reckoning, the only way anyone could track where they were or at least estimate, was through dead reckoning, tracking speed and direction via compass and tossing a line of a certain length and recording how long it took to get to the end of the rope to track speed.
  4. Whaleboat repair
    1. Chase’s boat went up, and pollards pulled up along side in order to to nail shit in place.
    2. Morale suffered despite repairs 
  5. Killer whale pollard,
    1. An orca attacked and took a bite out of the boat like scruff mcgruff taking a bite out of crime. They had to poke it 
    2. ‘“It seemed as if fate was wholly relentless, in pursuing us with such a cruel complication of disasters”
    3. Cruel irony of being hunted by whales
  6. salt 
    1. Kidneys gotta work overtime
    2. The boats gotta be bailed constantly, again if they weren’t reinforced it was ogre.
  7. Day eight they kill a tortise on the uss Chase.
    1. 4500 cals, like earlier, about a thanksgiving dinner for you  fat fucking yanks out there.
    2. Renewed morale, didn’t save any
  8. Day 12 
    1. Pistol shot brought everyone together’
    2. Beating away the crew of the other boats they all thought 
  9. Day 17 
    1. There was a brutal gale but everyone managed to stay together
    2. Lightning struck all around them, everyone layed down, 
    3. Morning came after the storm and still all 3 boats were within range
  10. December 9th (day 19)
    1. They could have hit tahiti in a week, but decide to press on with the original plan. 
    2. Then they lost contact with pollard but regained it the next day with a gunshot.
    3. Chase the primary architect of the narrative, slpt with a gun on the chest and if people talked shit he’d divy it up evenly, nobody did.if they did he’s shoot the mf that went after his bread.
  11. On Dec 14 (Day 24)
    1. Rations cut in half, 3 oz per day for each member
    2. They started to drink their piss
    3. Tongue during hypothermia
      1. Dries out
      2. Blood comes out of the eyes because of course it does.
      3. You feel like death is upon you 
    4. One of them looked over the boat and found barnacles
      1. A KING FEAST.
      2. Too weak to pull folks back
        1. Had to get yoinked up
      3. They tried to row on the 15rh, but even with 2x rations they were fucked
  12. Dec 19th (day 29)
    1. Land sighted, by will wright “ land HO and all the whalboats head for shore.
    2. They shot into the air with no response
    3. Chase speared a fish, the consumed immediately
    4. They found a trickle of spring water
    5. The most restful sleep they had had since the wreck
    6. Great feast upon exploration’s return from pollard birds, eggs, crabs ect.
    7. 8 skeletons 1 a child, dead from a previous shipwreck, all from dehydration
    8. Water spring from the island
    9. 400 miles southwest was pitcairn island
    10. By christmas eve the birds began to flee
  13. Dec 26th  (36)
    1. It was time to go, food was extinguished. 
    2. 35 days since the wreck and a week on Henderson island.
    3. 3000 miles from chile
    4. Tom chappel, Seth weeks, Will wright, all coofs, and seeing joy was toast they decided to stay
    5. Pollard promised them rescue if he survived
    6. They cried when everyone left
    7. Death “Stared them in the face” but when fading away from the island they had a bellyful of water and food, renewed resources and renewed hope.