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'Owen Chase' (1798-) was 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 ''Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex''. This book, published in 1821, would inspire Herman Melville to write ''Moby-Dick''.

Contents

Ghostwritten

References

Ghostwritten

In '', 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."'' Philbrick 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. Philbrick concludes that Coffin was the actual author.

References

★ Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, Chase, Owen, , , Lyons Press, 1999, ISBN 1558218785

★ In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Philbrick, Nathaniel, , , Penguin Books, 2001, ISBN 0141001828