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Owen Chase (1798-1869) First Mate of the whale ship Essex, that was struck and sunk by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820. Chase wrote about the incident in the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, the book that would inspire Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick.

Ghostwritten

In In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick notes that "Owen Chase was a whaleman, not a writer." and that Herman Melville wrote in his own copy of Chase's book "There seems no reason to suppose that Owen Chase himself wrote the Narrative. It bears obvious tokens of having been written for him; but at the same time, its whole air plainly evinces that it was carefully and conscientiously written to Owen's dictation of the facts." Philbrik notes that Chase had grown up with William Coffin, Jr., who years later ghostwrote Obed Macy's much praised history of Nantucket, and that there also is evidence that Coffin helped write an account of the notorious Globe mutiny. Philbrik concludes that Coffin was the actual author.

References

• Chase, Owen (1821). Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. W. B. Gilley. No ISBN. New York. Free ebook of The Narrative, plus references and related books.
• Philbrick, Nathaniel (2001). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-100182-0.

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