Chapter 14 Summary

Pollard took on his second command with optimism. In 1822, he rounded the Horn in the Two Brothers and headed up the coast of South America. In the Peruvian Port of Payta, Pollard met with Charles Wilkes, who had just read Chase's account of the disaster. Pollard insisted on telling the young man his own version. Wilkes deemed Pollard a hero. Yet, there was at least one indication that Pollard had not escaped unscathed from the Essex ordeal. Attached to the ceiling in Pollard's cabin was netting filled with provisions.

In Feb. 1823, the Two Brothers and another Nantucket ship, the Martha, were sailing west toward a new whaling ground. In the last several years, the entire Pacific had opened up as whaling ground. They were sailing in the same latitude as French Frigate Shoals, a place of rocks and coral reefs northwest of the...