Whales and Clangs

The Essex was made of strong white oak, it was 21 years old and it gone through two serious storms during that last voyage alone. But whalers have noted that competing male sperm whales will attack each other in a similar way to how the 85 foot long bull attacked the Essex head on. And so Captain Pollard ordered his men to salvage what they could from the floating wreckage. They found two casks of bread, 600 pounds of hard tack and several barrels of fresh water. Even this was far too much for the whale boats to carry the 25 foot long boats.