In Popular Culture
The title song of the 1971 album Nantucket Sleighride by American rock band Mountain is titled in full "Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin)". While there is no evidence that the song is specifically about the Essex (and the lyrics are in parts obscure in meaning), it is written from the point of view of a sailor on a ship undertaking a "three-year tour... on a search for the mighty sperm whale", and co-writer Felix Pappalardi confirmed that the Owen Coffin in the dedication was the one from the Essex tragedy, for example in an interview for the British music weekly Sounds (issue dated November 20, 1971).
German funeral doom metal band Ahab released a concept album about the Essex and one song directly references Coffin's fate in its title Gnawing Bones (Coffin's Lot) and its lyrics.
The story of the Essex is known to have greatly interested the writer Herman Melville, who made annotations on a copy of an account of the shipwreck and its aftermath, written by the ship's surviving first mate, Owen Chase. The story of the Essex inspired part of Melville's novel, Moby-Dick.
Read more about this topic: Owen Coffin
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“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
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