This is the true story of the 1821 whaleship Essex, the doomed Nantucket vessel whose catastrophic encounter with a massive sperm whale helped inspire Moby-Dick. After the Essex was rammed by the massive whale, the Essex was destroyed, leaving its crew stranded thousands of miles from land.
During their harrowing struggle for survival in their open-boat journey. Some of the men would survive, but only by engaging in the "custom of the sea." The story of the whaleship Essex is one of the most haunting tales from maritime history, and was the inspiration behind Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick.

**No AI was used in the production of this podcast.
Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano.
All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Original theme music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sean Sigfried⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial that Changed Legal History. Four men in a lifeboat.
Two weeks without food. One impossible choice that would reshape the boundaries between survival and murder. On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette set sail from England on what should have been an uneventful voyage. When their vessel sank in the Atlantic, Captain Thomas Dudley and his crew found themselves adrift in a tiny lifeboat. As days turned to weeks, they faced an unthinkable choice: starve to death or resort to cannibalism.

My guest for this episode is the author of Captain's Dinner, Adam Cohen.

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The total loss of SS Yarmouth Castle in 1965 is the deadliest passenger ship disaster off the American coast since the burning of SS Morro Castle in 1934.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking, this is a replay of Episode 33, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a terrible storm on November 10, 1975. The ship's crew of 29 men all perished and were never recovered. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes when it was launched on June 7, 1958. It remains the largest ship to have sunk in the Great Lakes.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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The Star of Bengal was a three-masted steel sailing ship that met a tragic end off the coast of Alaska on September 20, 1908. While transporting over 138 cannery workers, mostly Asian immigrants, and a cargo of canned salmon from Wrangell, Alaska to San Francisco, California, the ship was caught in a fierce gale. Two accompanying tugboats were forced to release their towlines, leaving the Star of Bengal to be driven onto the rocky shore near Coronation Island. The vessel broke apart in the storm, and the frigid waters claimed the lives of more than 100 people, making it one of Alaska’s deadliest maritime disasters.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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The SS Andaste was a semi-whaleback, self-unloading freighter built in 1892 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company. In 1925, a self-unloading system was added to her deck making her a bit top-heavy and unstable. On September 9, 1929, she was lost in a storm on Lake Michigan, while transporting a load of gravel from Ferrysburg (Grand Haven), Michigan to Chicago. All 25 on board perished. The wreck of the Andaste has never been found, but Great Lakes shipwreck hunters are actively searching for her.

Jennifer Keefer of the Grand Haven Area Convention & Vistor's Bureau joins me as a guest, and provided assistance with some of the research for this episode.

(Disclaimer: No monetary compensation, sponsorhip, or promotional consideration was given to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs for Ms. Keefer's participation in this episode.)

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Anthony Cummins, also known as Captain Tonz, is a retired marine captain, and real-life modern day pirate. I spoke with him in Episode 37, and he told of taking a humber barge across the Bay of Biscay, and his creative escape from Gibraltar. 

I had the chance to catch up with Captain Tonz again, and he shares more of his interesting stories including a dicey shipwreck, smuggling camels, and how pirates can, and do, help preserve the health of the world’s oceans.

There is a special acknowledgement and thank you at the conclusion of this episode, to everyone who has supported this show by joining the Officer's Club on Patreon, donated through BuyMaACoffee.com, or by subscrining to Into History.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠.

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Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer best known for his daring Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration. Born in County Kildare, Ireland, and raised in London, Shackleton first ventured south with Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904), before leading his own journeys aboard Nimrod (1907–1909) and Endurance (1914–1917). Though he never reached the South Pole, his leadership during the Endurance expedition—when his ship was crushed by ice and he led all 28 men to safety—earned him lasting fame as a model of courage, resilience, and leadership under pressure. Shackleton died of a heart attack in 1922 while preparing for another Antarctic voyage, and was buried on South Georgia Island, where his legacy as one of history’s greatest explorers endures.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠.

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