Henderson Island
Books
- Struck by a Whale The Essex Disaster and the True Story Behind Moby-Dick · Liszt Think
On November 20, 1820, a sperm whale rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex in the remote Pacific. Twenty men took to three open whaleboats, choosing a perilous eastward course over feared cannibal islands.
- The Chase…0°40′ south latitude, 119° west longitude—established later by calculation, not by any fixed mark in that unmarked space. Nearest land was Henderson Island, one hundred miles distant, limestone without water. Nearest inhabited land was the Marquesas, twelve hundred miles west. The coast of Sout…
- The Captain’s Decision (Afternoon, 20 November 1820)…the mapped archipelagos of the west but with more optimism than the empty eastern reaches, lay the suggestion of land. The officers knew of Henderson Island, Nickerson would later recall its name being spoken with particular emphasis, because British captains had reported it in recent years. On…
- The Historical Content…and set course south-southeast, angling toward islands that existed on their charts at approximately 24° south, 128° west: Ducie’s Island, Henderson Island, the Duke of Clarence’s Island. Believed to lie some 1, 200 miles from the wreck site, the calculation was reasonable by 1820 standards. It…