In the Heart of the Sea True Story: All About the Real Whale Attack (and the Crew's Harrowing Turn to Cannibalism) That Inspired the 2015 Film

In the heart of the sea is not only an epic tale of man against nature, it is also a dramatic recounting of a real attack.

Ron Howard’s 2015 film was based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book of the same name, which explores the sinking of a whaler in 1820 caused by a humpback whale attack. The Essex and the sailors portrayed on screen by Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland and Cillian Murphy were real and had already inspired Herman Melville’s iconic 1851 novel. Moby-Dick.

Despite having influenced many books and movies in many ways, the sailor’s real-life story is even more harrowing.

“Where Moby-Dick ends where he tells the story of Essex enters,” Philbrick told TIME in 2015. “It’s not a fictionalization of the story, it’s a transformation of the story and all the darkness Essex disaster.”

Similar to Moby-Dickwhich received mixed reviews upon release, In the heart of the sea it was widely considered a box office failure. However, the action film got its due 10 years later, when it rose to number one on Netflix in January 2025.

Although some moments were dramatized, Howard’s film remained true to the horrific events that the sailors lived through. The director said Iris in 2016 that he didn’t have to “invent a lot” of the drama after learning what the real men went through and that the intense production — which included putting Hemsworth on a 500-calorie daily diet — made the cast more empathetic to their characters.

“At the end of the day, I would apologize to everybody,” Howard said. “[The actors] he’d just say, ‘Well, for one thing, that’s just a fraction of what the real guys we played went through.’ ”

So what is the true story behind In the heart of the sea? Here’s everything you need to know about the real thing Essex the whale attack — and the tragic events that followed.

What happened to Essex?

Moby Dick from Herman Melville’s novel ‘Moby-Dick’.

Culture Club/Getty

On November 20, 1820, a whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, attacked a large sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to the Nantucket Historical Association, the ship was 1,300 miles from land.

First Officer Owen Chase is said to have been the first to spot the whale, Per Smithsonian magazine. He estimated it to be 85 feet long and said in later reports that it collided head-on with the ship, giving it “so terrible and enormous a jar that it nearly threw us all on our faces.” According to Chase’s retelling, the whale crashed into the Essex one more time before it disappears forever.

The ship quickly capsized, and the 20 surviving sailors boarded three small whaling boats with whatever supplies they could grab. Although their captain, George Pollard Jr., wanted to set sail for the nearest islands, rumors of their supposedly cannibalistic inhabitants convinced the remaining crew to head south in the hope of being spotted by another whaling ship.

Two weeks later they landed on Henderson Island, but found that there were few sources of food. Three remained on land, and the others set sail again.

In Chase’s 1821 book The story of the most unusual and shocking shipwreck of the Whale-Ship EssexThe 23-year-old sailor wrote that the starving crew had cannibalized the remains of one man who had died suddenly overnight – a tragic survival tactic he would use again.

Of the three ships and 16 men remaining, eight more sailors died after leaving Henderson Island and their bodies were also eaten. At length one boat disappeared altogether, and Chase and Captain Pollard lost sight of their vessels.

On February 6, 1821, a man on Pollard’s ship suggested that they draw lots to decide who would be eaten next. Fearing that they would all die if they did not eat soon, the men agreed, and Pollard’s young first cousin, Owen Coffin, drew the lots. Despite his cousin’s attempt to take his place, Coffin accepted the lot and was shot, killed and cannibalized.

How long have they been Essex crew lost at sea?

Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland in the movie ‘In the Heart of the Sea’.

Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

The Essex the crew was lost at sea for 92 days. Chase’s ship was saved on February 18, 1821, with only three men aboard, and Pollard and his last surviving crewman were found a week later. The third lost boat was only discovered years later, with only skeletons on board.

Miraculously, three men left on Henderson Island survived for four months on shellfish and bird eggs until they were spotted by an Australian ship. Of the 20 original crew members, only eight survived.

Who was Owen Chase?

Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase in Warner Bros. Pictures ‘In the heart of the sea’ (2015).

Jonathan Prime/Warner Brothers/Kobal/Shutterstock

Owen Chase, portrayed by Hemsworth in In the heart of the seahe was the first officer on board Essex.

After surviving three months at sea, he returned home and wrote his account of the whale attack and the disastrous events that followed. His book served as inspiration for Melville’s novel Moby-Dickaccording to Linda Hall Library.

Chase continued to go on whaling expeditions in the Pacific for the next two decades. He married four times – including the widow of one of his own Essex crew members — and died in 1869.

Who was Captain George Pollard Jr.?

Edward Ashley as Barzillai Ray, Morgan Chetcuti as Sheppard, Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase and Benjamin Walker as George Pollard in the Warner Bros. film. Pictures ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ (2015).

Jonathan Prime/THA/Shutterstock

George Pollard Jr., played by Benjamin Walker in the film, was the captain Essex. Just a few months after he was rescued, he was the captain of another ship called Two brothers.

In a twist of fate, it struck a reef near the Hawaiian Islands and sank, again stranding Pollard on a small boat in the middle of the ocean. Fortunately, he and his crew were rescued the next day.

This ended the captain’s whaling days, and he retired to Nantucket, where he worked as a grocer and one of the town’s constables. Pollard fasted every year on the anniversary Essexsank until he died in 1870, according to the Nantucket Historical Association.

Who was Thomas Nickerson?

Tom Holland as Thomas Nickerson in Warner Bros. Pictures ‘In the heart of the sea’ (2015).

Jonathan Prime/THA/Shutterstock

Thomas Nickerson was a cabin boy on board Essex. After surviving the ordeal, he went on to work as a mate on whalers and cargo ships before retiring in New York as a sailor. He eventually returned to Nantucket with his wife and ran a boarding house until his death in 1883.

Nickerson — also starring Holland and Brendan Gleeson In the heart of the sea — also wrote an account of the sinking, but it was lost for more than 80 years. After the book was found, it took 20 years to verify its authenticity, and eventually Philbrick used it as a source for his own book.

Who was Herman Melville?

American writer Herman Melville around 1860; Ben Wishaw as Herman Melville in Warner Bros. Pictures ‘In the heart of the sea’ (2015).

Hulton/Getty Archive; Jonathan Prime/Warner Brothers/Kobal/Shutterstock

Herman Melville, portrayed by Ben Whishaw in the 2015 film, was the author of the iconic American novel Moby-Dick. The novel was also inspired by his experience as a whaler and Essex tragedy.

According to the Nantucket Historical Association, Chase’s son gave Melville a copy of the former first man’s book Narrative while at sea on a whaling expedition near the original site of the attack.

The writer met Pollard years later, after the book was published. Although they exchanged only a few words, Melville said the captain was “a most impressive man, though ‘completely unassuming, even unassuming,'” per Smithsonian magazine.

Was Moby Dick real?

Benjamin Walker (right) as George Pollard in Warner Bros. Pictures ‘In the heart of the sea’ (2015).

Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures/THA/Shutterstock

Moby Dick—the giant, albino whale antagonist in Melville’s novel—is not real, but based on another sperm whale with a reputation for attacking and destroying small boats off the southern coast of Chile. Since it was often found around the island of Mocha, sailors nicknamed it Mocha Dick.

Unlike Moby Dick, Mocha Dick was not alabaster white but white with gray spots. According to the International Marine Mammal Project, it avoided humans for 20 years before it was finally killed by a harpoon.

Although the whale that brought it down Essex did not inspire the character of Moby Dick, the attack and the tragic events that followed served as inspiration for the ending of the story.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education