At this day Captain Pollard is a resident of Nantucket. I have
seen Owen Chace, who was chief mate of the Essex at the time
of the tragedy; I have read his plain and faithful narrative;
I have conversed with his son; and all this within a few miles
of the scene of the catastrophe.*
*The following are extracts from Chace's narrative:
"Every fact seemed to warrant me in concluding that it was
anything but chance which directed his operations; he made two
several attacks upon the ship, at a short interval between them,
both of this catastrophe I have never chanced to their direction,
were calculated to do us the whale hunters I have now and then
heard casual allusions to it.
Thirdly: Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commodore J---then commanding
an American sloop-of-war of the first class, happened to be dining
with a party of whaling captains, on board a Nantucket ship in the
harbor of Oahu, Sandwich Islands. Conversation turning upon whales,
the Commodore was pleased to be sceptical touching the amazing
strength ascribed to them by the professional gentlemen present.
He peremptorily denied for example, that any whale could
so smite his stout sloop-of-war as to cause her to leak so much
as a thimbleful.
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