It fell to Pollard to shoot young Owen Coffin. Pollard had persuaded Coffin to go to sea on the Essex and had sworn to Owen Coffin's family that he would protect the boy. Pollard felt the obligation to the extent that he could not allow anyone else to shoot him.

The Essex was not the only whaling ship to be sunk by an enraged sperm whale.

A ship called the Ann Alexander was also sunk this way. The whale that did the ramming was later harpooned and killed with pieces of the hull of the ruined ship emebedded in its flesh along with several harpoons. It was not is good shape.

Melville was reportedly quite unnerved by the tale, as it occurred after his publishing of Moby Dick.

There was a very good program on the History Channel this past year about the sinking of the Essex.