On20November1820,anAmericanwhalingship,theEssex,waspursuingandkillingapodofspermwhalesintheSouthPacificwhenoneofthemturnedthetablesontheship.Enragedfromthestrikeoftheharpoon,thewoundedwhale,whichwasmuchlargerthannormal,swamstraightfortheship,rammingitheadon.Thenitswamoffandattackedagain,andmanagedtoopensobigaholeinthehullthattheshipstartedgoingdownimmediately.Havinghumbleditsadversary,thewhaleswamaway.
Thecrewscrambledtosecurewhattheycouldforsupplies,andjumpedforthethreelongboatstheyhadwiththem.Theywerehundredsofmilesawayfromland,andthesuppliesoffoodandwaterwerewhollyinadequate.Asonecrewmemberafteranotherperishedfromdehydration,starvationandtheelements,thoseleftbehindatetheirremains.Outofthetwentycrewmembers,onlyeightsurvived.
一八二○年十一月二十日，美國捕鯨船艾塞克斯號在南太平洋追殺一群抹香鯨，其中一條實行反擊。這條抹香鯨體積比一般大，被魚叉所傷，非常憤怒，向艾塞克斯號直游過來，迎頭一撞，然後游開，再度攻擊，在船身上撞穿一個大洞。艾塞克斯號隨即開始下沉。那條鯨魚打敗了對手，這才游走。
艾塞克斯號船員連忙抓起一些必需品，跳到隨船的三條大划艇上。他們離陸地好幾百英里，而食物、水都嚴重不足。由於脫水、飢餓以及受不住大自然煎熬，船員相繼死去，未死者就吃他們的遺體，二十人最後只有八個活下來。