In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragic Story of the Whaleship Essex
The 2015 historical adventure drama movie, In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard, tells the true story of the 1820 sinking of the whaling ship Essex. The film is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book, which recounts the story of the Essex sinking and the men who survived it. However, the movie passes over one crucial piece of information from the true story.
In August 1819, the Essex set sail from Nantucket on a two-and-a-half-year journey to hunt whales. A little over a year into their voyage, a whale attacked the ship, killing many of the crew and forcing the survivors to retreat to smaller boats. Unfortunately, they were thousands of miles from the nearest land, stranded in the Southern Pacific Ocean.
The survivors of the Essex sinking had to decide on a plan of action. They wanted to find the nearest land, but George Pollard Jr., Owen Chase, and Matthew Joy were reportedly reluctant to travel to the Marquesas Islands or the Society Islands due to fears of cannibalism. As a result, they chose to travel 1,500 miles south and eventually came across Henderson Island, which was uninhabited.
Eventually, the men had to resort to cannibalism themselves to survive. Herman Melville, who was partly inspired by the Essex sinking to write his classic novel, Moby Dick, speculated that the crew would have survived if they had ignored their fear of cannibals and traveled to the Society Islands. However, it is impossible to know for sure what would have happened to the men if they had taken this route.
The movie, starring Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase, first mate of the whaling ship Essex, depicts the crew’s struggles to survive in the middle of the ocean. Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson also star in the film. Despite its tragic ending, In the Heart of the Sea is a thrilling adventure movie that explores the true story that inspired Moby Dick.
