What happened to the crew of the Essex?

Search: whale ship Essex

Why: On nerve's "Improve Your Taste with John C. Reilly" (which I only read because I enjoyed "Improve Your Taste with Questlove" so much):

And there's a great book called In the Heart of the Sea, the true story of the whale ship Essex, which was sunk by a white whale. It was this sensational newspaper story — this eighty-foot sperm whale rammed their boat and sunk it in ten minutes. Stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they had to fight their way back on these little whaling skiffs. I think like four people survived out of sixteen, and they ended up having to draw lots and eat each other in order to survive. And then Herman Melville read about it in the paper in Nantucket and wrote Moby Dick.

Answer: Hold your f-ing horse-dolphins. Points of note:

• There were 21 men aboard the Essex, including 14 year-old Cabin Boy Thomas Nickerson. They were hunting a pod of sperm whales in the South Pacific.

• On November 20, 1820, a giant sperm whale rammed the ship twice, sinking it.
• The men got in 3 little rescue boats with barely any food, water, or supplies. After a few days, a killer whale attacked one of the boats, biting a chunk out of the side of it.
  
• The men eventually landed on a tiny island, but were afraid it was inhabited by cannibals. Several weeks later, they found another uninhabited island, used all their supplies within a week, and had to move on. (3 stayed behind.)

• Due to malnutrition and too much sodium, the men got boils, edema, diarrhea, and magnesium deficiency. They eventually started drinking their own urine and fighting over food. When they ran out of tobacco, the smokers (all of them) suffered severe withdrawal.
• A storm separated the 3 ships. One was never seen again.
• Weak men died. The first few were sewed into their clothes and buried at sea. Then they started eating each other. An incident:

Towards the end of the ordeal, the situation in Captain Pollard's boat became quite critical. The men drew lots to determine who would be sacrificed for the survival of the crew. A young man named Owen Coffin, Captain Pollard's young cousin, whom he had sworn to protect, drew the black spot. Lots were drawn again to determine who would be Coffin's executioner. His young friend, Charles Ramsdell, drew the black spot. Ramsdell shot Coffin, and his remains were consumed by Pollard, Barzillai Ray, and Charles Ramsdell. Some time later, Ray also died. For the remainder of their journey, Pollard and Ramsdell survived by gnawing on the bones of Coffin and Ray.

• In February, 93 days after the Essex sank, 2 of the remaining men were spotted and rescued. A fews days later, 3 more are found. They send help to the island where the first 3 stayed. If you are counting, that is 8 who lived and 13 who died. By the time the last of the eight survivors were rescued on April 5, 1821, they had consumed the corpses of 7 fellow sailors.

Yipe!

Source: You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Whaling Ship Essex, Wikipedia

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