Bonnie and Laura are having a whale of a time this week discussing the sinking of the whaleship Essex. This voyage is famously known as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, though Melville’s story concludes when the true story of human survival begins. Tune in to learn about the story that once captured the ear of American society and reminded us of the ocean’s power!

At this podcast, we stan Thomas Nickerson and first-hand accounts! <3

This week's sources:

Byers, Edward. The Nation of Nantucket: Society and Politics in an Early American Commercial Center, 1660-1820. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987.

J. Hector St. John De Crévecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer and Other Essays (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013).

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex. New York, NY: Puffin Books, 2000.

**Honestly, so much of this week's research was done in conjunction with Bonnie's senior seminar paper, and she's having a rough time separating her sources for that and the ones used specifically for this episode. The above sources were the very important ones, though, and they are worth a gander (especially In the Heart of the Sea).