Content Warning: This section references survival cannibalism as well as violence against animals.

Far more than anything else in the story of the Essex, Philbrick highlights the endurance of the human spirit and the will to survive. While the crew was relatively young and inexperienced—their captain was only 28, their first mate 22, and the youngest a mere 15 years of age—eight of them would ultimately survive the ordeal, struggling through starvation, illness, and death to do so. The survivors even managed to lead relatively similar lives after returning to Nantucket, and all would return to sea at least once more.

When the Essex first began to sink beneath the waves after being attacked by the great whale, the quick thinking of William Bond gave the company their greatest chance of survival by “[returning] several times to the rapidly filling aft cabins to retrieve Pollard’s and Chase’s trunks and—with great foresight—the navigational equipment” (84). If it were not for this courageous act, the crew would have been at a loss from the very start. As it was, the journey proved to be a test of physical and mental endurance. The men survived on starvation rations for three months, only supplemented once during their short stay on Henderson Island.