Historedia
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Sinking of the Essex

When
November 20, 1820
Where
Southern Pacific Ocean
Part of
Whaleship Essex sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific

On November 20, 1820, a sperm whale rammed the Essex twice, sinking the ship in the Pacific Ocean.

The whale was estimated to be 85 feet long. The ship sank 2,000 nautical miles west of South America. The crew salvaged food and water from the wreck before escaping in three whaleboats.

Sources

  1. Owen Chase Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26
  2. Essex (whaleship) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.