Return To Nantucket
Along with three other survivors of the Essex, Chase was returned to Nantucket on the Eagle on June 11, 1821 to find he had a 14 month old daughter he had never seen named Phebe. An account of the homecoming was later published in a magazine. A large crowd had gathered at the docks to see the survivors arrive and as they disembarked, had parted without a sound. The survivors walked alone to their homes without a word being spoken.
Within four months and with the help of a ghostwriter, he completed an account of the disaster, the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex; this was used by Herman Melville as one of the inspirations for his novel Moby-Dick.
Read more about this topic: Owen Chase
Famous quotes containing the words return to and/or return:
“A tree may grow a thousand feet tall, but its leaves will return to its roots.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We wished our two souls
might return like gulls
to the rock. In the end,
the water was too cold for us.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)