The mystery of sperm whales that sank ships: from Essex to the inspiration for “Moby-Dick

On November 20, 1820, the whaling ship Essex became involved in an extraordinary maritime incident that would later serve as one of the inspirations for Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick.”

Thomas Nickerson was only 15 years old when he survived an encounter with a whale that had damaged his boat. As he was returning to the Essex with his companions, he noticed another sperm whale, much larger, moving rapidly toward the ship.

Nickerson took control of the boat and alerted the first mate, Owen Chase. Immediately afterward, the whale rammed the Essex head-on, causing such a powerful collision that the crew was thrown off balance.

After the first impact, the sperm whale moved about 270 meters away, but then turned and charged toward the ship a second time. This collision destroyed the Essex and caused it to sink.

Although more than two centuries have passed, scientific studies are helping to explain how a whale could severely damage a ship much larger than itself.

A powerful structure at the front of the head

The sperm whale’s head accounts for approximately one-third of its body length. This is where the spermaceti organ is located, consisting of fat and wax and capable of holding up to 1,900 liters of material.

This organ is linked to an early hypothesis proposed by Owen Chase. According to it, the front of a sperm whale’s head could be used like a battering ram for powerful strikes.

Evolutionary biologist Dave Carrier examined this idea and, in 2002, concluded that the sperm whale’s enlarged forehead may have evolved for powerful collisions, particularly during conflicts between males.

More recent recordings appear to support this theory. Ecophysiologist Alec Burslem has filmed sperm whales ramming their heads into one another in the waters near the Balearic Islands and the Azores.

In one documented case, a young male approached another whale at a speed of about 4.5 meters per second and struck it with an estimated force of around 460 kilonewtons.

Burslem estimates that a fully grown sperm whale, if it were moving at the same speed, could generate a force of around 1,200 kilonewtons. This force is comparable to the impact of a bus traveling at about 65 kilometers per hour.

Cases of sperm whales attacking large ships are rare, but the Essex was not the only vessel to face such an incident.

In 1851, a sperm whale attacked and sank the ship Ann Alexander in the South Pacific. Half a century later, in 1902, another sperm whale destroyed the ship Kathleen near the Galápagos Islands.

Michael Harrison, chief curator of the Nantucket Historical Society, says that maritime history records only three cases in which a whale directly attacked a mother ship.

Nevertheless, the story of the Essex remains the best known. The ship’s sinking and the fate of its crew became one of the main sources of inspiration for “Moby-Dick,” while Owen Chase’s idea, put forward more than 200 years ago, is once again being assessed through new scientific evidence.