Essex (whaleship) - Voyage

Voyage

The Essex left Nantucket on August 12, 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage to the whaling grounds off the west coast of South America. Two days after leaving port the ship was hit by a squall that knocked her on her beam ends, nearly sinking her. The topgallant sail was lost, with one whaleboat damaged and two destroyed. Deciding to continue without replacing the boats and repairing the damage, the Essex rounded Cape Horn in January 1820. This passage took a full five weeks, which was extreme even for that time; combined with the unsettling earlier incident there began to be talk of ill-omens. This was put aside as the Essex began the long spring and summer hunt in the warm waters of the south Pacific, going up the western coast of South America.

Finding the area nearly fished out, they encountered other whalers, who told them of a newly-discovered hunting ground, known as the "offshore ground", located at 5–10 degrees south latitude and 105–125 degrees west longitude, in the South Pacific, roughly 2500 nautical miles (4,600 km) to the south and west. In the early days of Pacific whaling, this was an immense distance to travel out from land, and the area, with its many islands rumored to be populated by cannibals, was an unknown quantity. To restock their food supplies for the long journey, the Essex sailed for Charles Island in the Galapagos Islands group.

Due to the need to fix a serious leak, the vessel first anchored at Hood Island on October 8. Over seven days they captured 300 tortoises to supplement the ship's stores. They then sailed for Charles Island where on October 22 they obtained another 60 tortoises. While hunting on Charles Island, boatsteerer Thomas Chappel decided to set a fire as a prank. Being the height of the dry season, the fire soon burned out of control and quickly surrounded the hunters, who were forced to run through the flames to escape. By the time the men returned to the Essex almost the entire island was burning. The crew were upset about the fire and Captain Pollard swore vengeance on whoever had set it. Fearing a whipping, it was to be some time before Chappel admitted to being the culprit. The next day saw the island still burning as the ship sailed for the offshore grounds and after a full day of sailing the fire was still visible on the horizon. Many years later Nickerson returned to Charles Island and found a black wasteland, "neither trees, shrubbery, nor grass have since appeared." It is believed the fire contributed to the extinction of the Floreana Tortoise and the Floreana Mockingbird.