In this third and final part of the story, we see the men of the whaleship Essex embark on a journey of thousands of miles in open whaleboats in the hope of reaching the safety of the South American coast.

Less than half of them will survive the ordeal, but for some their role in the story will continue even beyond death. 

Sources:

Brantlinger, Patrick. “Missionaries and Cannibals in Nineteenth-century Fiji.” History and Anthropology, vol. 17, no. 1, 2006, pp. 21-38. 

Heffernan, Thomas Farel. Stove By a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex. Wesleyan University Press, 1990.

Hernández Gutierrez, José María. "Traveling Anthropophagy: The Depiction of Cannibalism in Modern Travel Writing, 16th to 19th Centuries." The Journal of World History, vol. 30, no. 3, Sept 2019.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea. Penguin Books, 2000.

The Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex: The True Story that Inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Warbler Classics, 2022.

Part Two of our series on the whaleship Essex brings us from Nantucket all the way around Cape Horn to the Pacific whaling grounds, and the climactic showdown with 'the largest and most terrible of all created animals.' 

Sources:

Dolin, Eric Jay. Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America. W.W Norton & Company, 2008.

Ellis, Richard. The Great Sperm Whale: A Natural History of the Ocean's Most Magnificent and Mysterious Creature. University Press of Kansas, 2011.

Heffernan, Thomas Farel. Stove By a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex. Wesleyan University Press, 1990.

Pappas, Stephanie. "Why Has a Group of Orcas Suddenly Started Attacking Boats?" Scientific American, 24 May 2023. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-has-a-group-of-orcas-suddenly-started-attacking-boats/

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea. Penguin Books, 2000.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. "'Every Wave Is a Fortune': Nantucket Island and the Making of an American Icon." The New England Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 3, Sep 1993, pp. 434 - 447.

The Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex: The True Story that Inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Warbler Classics, 2022.

Shoemaker, Nancy. "Oil, Spermaceti, Ambergris, and Teeth." RCC Perspectives, no. 5 (New Histories of Pacific Whaling), 2019, pp. 17 - 22. 

This week begins our multi-part episode on the whaleship Essex, famously 'stove by a whale' in 1820, leading to an epic tale of survival, determination, and just a bit of cannibalism.

Part I focuses on the history of whaling industry in (first) Britain's American colonies and (then) the young United States, with special attention to the island of Nantucket. 

Sources:

Bouk, Dan and D. Graham Burnett. "Knowledge of Leviathan: Charles W. Morgan Anatomizes His Whale." Journal of the Early Republic, Fall 2008, pp. 433 - 466.

Dolin, Eric Jay. Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America. W.W Norton & Company, 2008.

Ellis, Richard. The Great Sperm Whale: A Natural History of the Ocean's Most Magnificent and Mysterious Creature. University Press of Kansas, 2011.

Jacob, Karl. "Nantucket's Bid for Survival During the War of 1812." Nantucket Historical Association, 2023, https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/nantuckets-bid-for-survival-during-the-war-of-1812/

Lu, Donna. "Nearly 200 stranded pilot whales die on Tasmanian beach but dozens saved and returned to sea." The Guardian, 22 Sep 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/22/nearly-200-stranded-pilot-whales-die-on-tasmanian-beach

Michaels, Debra. "Lucretia Mott (1793 - 1880)". National Women's History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lucretia-mott

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea. Penguin Books, 2000.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. "'Every Wave Is a Fortune': Nantucket Island and the Making of an American Icon." The New England Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 3, Sep 1993, pp. 434 - 447.

Shoemaker, Nancy. "Oil, Spermaceti, Ambergris, and Teeth." RCC Perspectives, no. 5 (New Histories of Pacific Whaling), 2019, pp. 17 - 22. 

Kaylee (@kayleefabulous) is back this week to share a story from Duluth - the sinking of the whaleback Thomas Wilson after a collision with the George Hadley.

Kaylee's Duluth dive bar write-up: https://racketmn.com/best-dive-bars-duluth-mn

Sources:

Duluth Evening Herald, 29 Nov 1905.

Duluth Evening Herald, 7 Jun 1902.

Engman, Elmer. In the Belly of a Whale. Innerspace, 1988.

Stonehouse, Frederick. Haunted Lakes. Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., 1997.

Miller, Al. Tin Stackers: The History of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. Wayne State University Press, 1999.

**this episode does contain some instances of language that would normally be edited out in the main feed, but has been kept in the episode to preserve the direct quotes reported in Casey's article**

In the first of our "current events" episodes, we discuss Susan Casey's Vanity Fair article on the Oceangate submersible incident from earlier this year.

Source:

Casey, Susan. "The Titan Submersible Disaster Was Years in the Making, New Details Reveal." Vanity Fair, 17 Aug 2023. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/titan-submersible-implosion-warnings

**Article is also posted on our Patreon (unlocked post) in PDF form**

This week we tell Part 1 of the tale of the Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos - alternatively referred to as 'The Beeswax Wreck' for reasons that will be made apparent.

This episode sets the background and historical context for Part Two, which will feature an interview with a special guest involved with the story of the wreck.

Sources:

Borao Mateo, Jose Eugenio. “The arrival of the Spanish galleons in Manila from the Pacific Ocean and their departure along the Kuroshio stream (16th and 17th centuries).” Journal of Geographic Research, no. 47

La Follette, Cameron, Dennis Griffin, and Douglas Deur. “The Mountain of a Thousand Holes: Shipwreck Traditions and Treasure Hunting on Oregon’s North Coast.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 119, no. 2, Summer 2018, pp. 282 - 313. 

La Follette, Cameron, Douglas Deur, and Esther González. “The Galleon’s Final Journey: Accounts of Ship, Crew, and Passengers in the Colonial Archives.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 119, no. 2, Summer 2018, pp. 210 - 249 

Lévesque, Rodrigue. “The Odyssey of Captain Arriola and His Discovery of Marcus Island in 1694.” The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 32, no. 2, Dec 1997, pp. 229 - 233. 

“The Myth of the Pacific Pirate Ship.” Drain the Oceans, Season 6, Episode 4, National Geographic, 2023. 

Tremml, Birgit M. “The Global and the Local: Problematic Dynamics of the Triangular Trade in Early Modern Manila.” Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 3, Sept 2012.

Williams, Scott S., Curt D. Peterson, Mitch Marken, and Richard Rogers. “The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem: A Lost Manila Galleon.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 119, no. 2, Summer 2018, pp. 191 - 209. 

No new story this week, so this is a chat about how the podcast has developed and where we plan to take it in the future. We're back next week with your standard programming. 

Outro music is "Pique la baleine" as sung by the Dreadnoughts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTLqKV4q2n8

For this week's episode we are back close to home for the tale of the steamer Phoenix, which burned off of Sheboygan WI in 1847, in what remains one of the worst tragedies on Lake Michigan. 

The music at the end of the episode is 'Nader, mijn God, bij U' (Nearer, My God, To Thee) as performed by the Martin Mans Formation.

Sources: 

Hilty, Maya. “Remains of the Phoenix, one of the Lake Michigan’s deadliest shipwrecks, discovered 175 years after sinking off Sheboygan’s shore.” Sheboygan Press, 21 Nov 2022. 

“Phoenix (1845).” Wisconsin Shipwrecks. https://wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Vessel/Details/505

“Phoenix (Propeller), 17 Mar 1846.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes. https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=30035&n=2

Thompson, Mark L. Graveyard of the Lakes. Wayne State University Press, 2000. 

Van Eyck, William O. “The Story of the Propeller Phoenix.” The Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 7, no. 3, March 1924, pp. 281 - 300. 

https://www.linkstothepast.com/marine/chapt36.php

**a small correction to the episode - the French painter Édouard Manet did not observe the battle off Cherbourg personally, but used eyewitness and press accounts to reconstruct the events for his painting The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.

This week it's the story of the Confederate commerce raider Alabama, the terror of the US merchant fleet until she was turned into a marine archaeological site by the USS Kearsarge off of Cherbourg, France

Sources:

Ameur, Farid.  "La guerre de Sécession au large de Cherbourg: La France impériale et l'affaire du CSS Alabama (juin 1864)." Relations Internationales, no. 150, Spring 2012, pp. 7 - 22.

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Alabama Claims.

"CSS Alabama Wreck Site (1864): A Confederate Shipwreck in France." Naval History and Heritage Command, 2 Dec 2020. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/css-alabama.html

Langlois, Francis. "Neutralité, reconnaissance ou intervention." Diplomatie, no. 177, Sept-Oct 2022, pp. 91 - 95.

Roach, J. Ashley. "France Concedes United States has Title to CSS Alabama." The American Journal of International Law, vol. 85, no. 2, Apr 1991, pp. 381 - 383.

Symonds, Craig. "Kearsarge and Alabama: The Civil War’s Classic Ship-to-Ship Duel." American Battlefield Trust. battlefields.org/learn/articles/kearsarge-and-alabama

We're back in the Galveston area to discuss a very recent incident involving the fishing vessel Pappy's Pride and the chemical tanker Bow Fortune

Sources:

NTSB Report - Collision Between Tanker Bow Fortune and Fishing Vessel Pappy’s Pride

Heath, Keri. "Pappy's Pride salvage continues, families file claims." The Daily News, 30 Jan 2020. https://www.galvnews.com/news/article_66b30e27-1479-514b-8d59-1f294ef303f4.html

"Incident with Bow Fortune in Galveston, Texas." Odfjell, 2 Feb 2020. https://www.odfjell.com/about/our-stories/incident-with-bow-fortune-in-galveston-texas/

In this, one of our absolute favorite bonus episodes (originally released for patrons in September 2022), we discuss the brief but eventful life of the Pensacola lumber schooner Richard A. Bingham.

Sources:

Heier, Jan Richard. "The Development of American Ship-Accounting Practices to 1900: A Comparative Study of Three Vessels." The Accounting Historians Journal, vol. 26, no. 1, June 1999, pp. 27 - 52.

Heier, Jan Richard. "The Short Life of the Richard A. Bingham: A Pensacola Lumber Schooner." The Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. 79,  no.  2, Fall 2000, pp. 137 - 158.

This week we have a WWI story in the Mediterranean with the sinking of HMT Aragon off of Alexandria, Egypt. 

Sources:

"100 Years Ago." Posted by fredarth09, 01 June 2014. https://fredarth.wordpress.com/tag/hmt-aragon/

"Aragon." The Yard, http://www.theyard.info/ships/ships.asp?entryid=367

"Chaplain recalls torpedoed ship drama." The Luton New, 31 Jan 1918. http://www.worldwar1luton.com/blog-entry/chaplain-recalls-torpedoed-ships-drama

"The British Ship HMT Aragon." The University of Newcastle, https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/101374?keywords=

"The Forgotten Ally: Japanese escorts in the First World War." https://thewellingtontrust.wordpress.com/

"The sinking of the S.S. Aragon, 30th December 1917." The Bedfordshire Regiment in the Great War, http://bedfordregiment.org.uk/5thbn/ssaragon.html

This week it's the tale of the stern trawler Gaul, and the mystery of her 1974 sinking in the Barents Sea fishing grounds, leading to a decades-long search for answers. 

Sources:

Dispatches - "Secrets of the Gaul." 1997.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=secrets+of+the+gaul 

Re-opened Formal Investigation Report 2004

"Sinking of stern trawler Gaul with loss of 36 lives." Marine Accident Investigation Branch, April 1999. https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports/sinking-of-stern-trawler-gaul-in-the-barents-sea-with-loss-of-36-lives

This week we go back to a place near and dear to us - Scapa Flow - for the story of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak.

Sources:

Gorbahn, Katja. "Perpetrators, victims, heroes – the Second World War and National
Socialism in Danish history magazines." Commercialised History: Popular History Magazines in Europe.

"Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien." uboat.net. https://uboat.net/men/prien.htm

Mason, Geoffrey B. "HMS Royal Oak, British battleship, WW2."
Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. 2008. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-01BB-Royal%20Oak.htm

Ritzel, Fred. "Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern! Über ein Lied aus der Zeit des Kriegsanfangs, seine mediale Präsentation und seine Nachwirkungen." Lied und populäre Kultur, 2014, pp. 143 - 169. 

As we're in a new location this week, there's a good deal of background in this episode leading up to the sinking of the ferry Sinar Bangun on Lake Toba (Sumatra, Indonesia) in June 2018. This episode is being released just before the five-year anniversary of the incident. 

**KM = Kapal Motor (Motor Vessel), equivalent to MV designation in English

Sources:

Bakkara, Binsar and Niniek Karmini. "Divers search Indonesian lake for 192 missing after sinking." AP News, 20 June 2018. https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-ap-top-news-sumatra-international-news-asia-pacific-e06826d999954aad9050ef96bca72e41

"BASARNAS, continuing to improve." Asia Corporate News Network, 11 July 2018. https://www.acnnewswire.com/press-release/english/44710/basarnas,-continuing-to-improve

Bowo, Ludfi Pratiwi, Masao Furusho, and Mohammad Arif Kurniawan. "A Causal Study of Indonesian Sinar Bangun Ferry Accident by HEART Methodology." Navigation, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jinnavi/207/0/207_34/_pdf/-char/ja

Hutajulu, Rithaony. "Tourism's Impact on Toba Batak Ceremony." Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1995, pp. 639 - 655.

Jensen, Fergus. "Indonesians face daunting task to recover bodies from ferry sunk in crater lake." Reuters, 22 June 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-indonesia-ferry-recovery-idUKKBN1JI1FM

"Overhaul maritime safety after Lake Toba tragedy: Indonesian President Joko Widodo." The Straits Times, 21 June 2018. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/overhaul-maritime-safety-after-lake-toba-tragedy-indonesian-president-joko-widodo

Salim, Hanz Jimenez. "Jokowi Perintahkan Menhub Evaluasi Standar Keamanan Angkutan Penyeberangan." Liputan 6, 20 June 2018. https://www.liputan6.com/news/read/3564822/jokowi-perintahkan-menhub-evaluasi-standar-keamanan-angkutan-penyeberangan

"Ship Safety Standards Ignored on Lake Toba." Kompas, 6 July 2018. https://www.kompas.id/baca/english/2018/07/06/ship-safety-standards-ignored-on-lake-toba

Videos referenced:

Short news segment showing cell phone footage from the accident

About 11 minutes of cell phone footage showing the incident and immediate aftermath

Segment of the TV program Hitam Putih (Black and White) featuring an interview with Sinar Bangun survivor Hernando Lingga

This week we travel back to the early days of steamers on the Great Lakes - Walk-In-The-Water. With the power of 73 horses and a little bit of a horned breeze, who knows what adventures we can have?

Sources:

Carroll, Francis M. "The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary along the Michigan Frontier, 1819-1827: The Boundary Commissions under Articles Six and Seven of the Treaty of Ghent." Michigan Historical Review, vol. 30 no. 2, Fall 2004, pp. 77 - 104. 

Palmer, Mary A. Witherell. "The Wreck of the Walk-In-The-Water, Pioneer Steamboat on the Great Lakes." Communicated to the Buffalo Historical Society, 1865. https://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/walkinthewater/default.asp?ID=c1

"Walk-In-The-Water." Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/walk-water

"Walk-in-the-water (Steamboat), aground, 1 Nov 1821." Maritime History of the Great Lakes. https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=47525

**this was originally released on the bonus feed for Patrons in July 2022; enjoy! And consider supporting the show on Patreon!**

This is the second installment in our sporadic Dead Reckoning bonus series. This episode takes us to the haunted coast of Connecticut, where spirits are said to linger at New London Ledge Light and Penfield Reef.

Sources:

Blake, Kevin. "Lighthouse Symbolism in the American Landscape." FOCUS on Geography, Summer 2007, pp. 9 - 15.

Carter, Donald. Connecticut's Seaside Ghosts. Schiffer, 2008.

“Lighthouse Facts.” United States Lighthouse Society. https://uslhs.org/education/glossaries-facts-trivia/lighthouse-facts.

Miller, Allen S. “‘The Lighthouse Top I See’: Lighthouses as Instruments and Manifestations of State Building in the Early Republic.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 2010, pp. 13 - 34. 

We make a return to Chile after about two years away to tell the tale of the steamship Cazador (the first such vessel to ever serve in the Chilean Navy). 

We were previously in Chile for the story of the Angamos wayyyy back in Episode 14; give it another listen if you need a refresher!

Sources:
 
"A 163 años del naufragio del barco 'Vapor Cazador': Así fue la peor tragedia naval en Chile". Teletrece, 30 Jan 2019. https://www.t13.cl/noticia/nacional/Flotaban-cadaveres-de-mujeres-sosteniendo-a-sus-hijos-a-163-anos-de-la-peor-tragedia-naval-en-Chile

"Loss of a Steamer and 300 Lives." Lloyd's Weekly, London, 6 Apr 1856. 

Sotomayor, Rafael "Num. IV. Notas Relativas al Naufragio del vapor Cazador." Memoria que el Ministro de Estado en el Departamento de Marina Presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1856.

For this month's bonus episode we are discussing the 1984 film The Bounty starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson. 

Apologies for the delay, but we hope you enjoy our burgeoning interest in sound effects. 

This week Taylor brings us the story of a vessel with a short but fascinating life - Cleopatra's Barge, which would later be renamed Ha'aheo o Hawai'i (Pride of Hawai'i) after being purchased by Kamehameha II for his personal use.

**This episode opens with a longer banter session than normal as we shake off the chains of the Spanish Armada series**

Sources:

Johnson, Paul Forsyth. "Do They Really Pay You To Do That?" Smithsonian Institution, Sept 1996. https://web.archive.org/web/20110604054435/http://americanhistory.si.edu/about/pubs/johnston2.pdf

Johnston, Paul Forsyth. "A Million Pounds of Sandalwood: The History of Cleopatra's Barge in Hawaii." The American Neptune, vol. 62, no. 1, 2002, pp. 5 - 45