Captain George Pollard Jr. had no pick but to eat his full cousin . Crammed aboard a small whaleboat with some of his crew , the maitre d' had been drift aimlessly in the South Pacific for more than two months . The sun was relentless , their thirst was unquenchable , and the Kingston-upon Hull was leaking . Saltwater had leached into the adult male ’s stash of bread , and one by one , Pollard ’s work force die of starvation — and were quickly guttle by the athirst survivor .
It was a nightmare scenario . week earlier , in November 1820 , Pollard ’s crew had been pursuing ( and harpoon ) a pod of sperm whale when an 85 - metrical unit - long hulk barreled head - on into the captain ’s ship , theEssexof Nantucket , sending it to the ocean ’s bottom . The 20 survivor scrambled into three whaleboat , which eventually became divide during a storm . After two and a one-half months at sea , the days get down to blur and the stockpile of food dwindle away , and the four men remaining on Pollard ’s boat realized they were all go to crave if food did n’t before long become available . So they check to draw lots : Whoever pull up the short stick would offer to be shot and eaten .
It was a terribly irony . When theEssexsank , the men had been relatively close to the Marquesas Islands , but Pollard ’s man were afraid of land there — the islands were rumour to be full of cannibals . Pollard accord to fall out a longer route , hoping to drift in the south and then east in hopes of reaching Chile . That decisiveness , however , had made cannibals of the men on board .
“Nothing of Him Left”
As for the drafting of mass , Pollard ’s 18 - year - old cousin , Owen Coffin , was the ill-omened nonstarter . When Pollard insist that he take the unseasoned man ’s home , Coffinrefused — and was summarily burgeon forth in the chief . “ He was presently dispatched , ” Pollard grimlyrecalled , “ and nothing of him left . ” About two weeks later , Pollard ’s boat was find . By that point , the two subsist manpower — Pollard and sailor Charles Ramsdell — had recur to wassail their own water and were witness gnawing on the bones of their deceased match .
The trial by ordeal would frequent Captain Pollard . Before the ocean trip , he had predict Coffin ’s female parent that the male child would reelect home safely , and his failure to keep Coffin awake blight his conscience . After surviving a secondshipwreck , the captain took a task on hardy land as Nantucket ’s nighttime watchman , where he looked over the street and wharf .
Three tenner afterward , when Pollard was 60,Herman Melville — fresh from finishingMoby - Dick — pay the aging skipper a sojourn . Pollard did n’t know about the book , and the two did n’t exchange many words . But Melville harbored a secret : The sinking feeling of theEssexhad inspire his novel . ( Melvilledid not basethe monomaniacal character reference of Captain Ahab on Pollard , however . )
Melville marveled at the tormented man , saying of his clash : “ To the islanders he was a nobody — to me , the most impressive man , tho ’ altogether retiring , even humble — that I ever encountered . ” In fact , MelvillementionedPollard in his epicClarel , the longestpoemin American literature .
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A version of this story was release in 2019 ; it has been update for 2025 .
