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Mudcatter on NBC
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Subject: Mudcatter on NBC From: David Coffin Date: 30 Aug 01 - 08:08 PM Look for Gloucesterman (David Coffin from Gloucester MA) on the NBC documentary Revenge of the Whale, The Story of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex. "Revenge of the Whale" A Special NBC News Presentation Airing Friday, September 7th at 8pm Narrated by Liam Neeson Produced and Directed by Geoff Stephens Primary Interview and Consultant, Nathaniel Philbrick Music Arranged and Performed by David Coffin In 1820 Nantucket was the busiest and richest whaling port in the world. Her ships ranged far and wide hunting Sperm Whales for their valuable oil. On the far edge of the Pacific - the edge of the known world for the Nantuckers - the Whaleship Essex was in the first year of a three year whaling voyage. On a calm morning the Essex was hunting whales when a huge bull Sperm Whale - as large as the ship, and heavier - suddenly turned on them and attacked the ship. The enraged, and apparently vengeful whale rammed the Essex twice, causing her to sink. The stunned whalemen filled their three 25ft whaleboats with as much water and food as they could. Ignorant and fearful of cannibals they decided not to sail west with the prevailing winds to Tahiti (only a month's sail away), instead set course on an impossible odyssey across thousands of miles of open water to the coast of Chile. With only rudimentary navigation, exposed to the sun and storms, they drifted for three months across the open sea. Finally running out of water and food, they were forced to draw lots, to kill and eat one another. Eight men out of twenty survived. The Essex tragedy was the basis for "Moby Dick". It is a tale of remarkable courage, endurance and pathos, of men driven to the edge of darkness, forced to make the most awful decisions in order to survive. The story is told through the diaries of three of the men who survived: Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy, 14 years old when the ship sailed, his is a dramatic coming of age tale; Owen Chase, the hard-driving, macho, impetuous First Mate whose steely discipline saved many lives, but who hesitated at the one moment when the whale could have been driven off, a hesitation that tormented him his whole life, and eventually drove him insane; George Pollard, the Captain, quiet, and indecisive, who gave in to Chase's bullying and made several fatal errors and who carried the most terrible burden of all; he had to execute and eat his own cousin, but whose deep strength of character allowed him to endure and prosper. The NBC film, is based on the best selling book "In the Heart of the Sea" (winner of the 2001 National Book Award). Author Nathaniel Philbrick serves as consultant and primary interview. Revenge of the Whale Narrated by Liam Neeson Produced and Directed by Geoff Stephens Edited by Andrew Finkelstein Director of Photography Curt Worden Written by Geoff Stephens & John Hockenberry Associate Producer Carolyn Goldman Assistant Producer Kim Krawitz Music Arranged and Performed by David Coffin
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: SINSULL Date: 30 Aug 01 - 08:11 PM Thanks for the heads up. My father is devouring the recent book on the Essex - mind is a blank. Sorry. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 30 Aug 01 - 09:17 PM David!! That's so exciting! A little step up from the Revels, eh? (I performed on-n-off from '79-'96 in Boston) I'll be at a conference all that weekend, but will try to get someone to tape it for me. Allison |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: iamjohnne Date: 30 Aug 01 - 09:22 PM As my kids would say"WAY COOL DUDE" I wil definatly be watching. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Pelrad Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:53 PM Way to go, David! Sinsull, would that be "In the Heart of the Ocean" by Neil(?) Philbrick? I just saw it in the Kendall Whaling Museum gift shop the other day and it looked good. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Amos Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:40 PM Here's an earlier visit to the Essex' tale, from a slightly different point of view. Enjoy. A |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Metchosin Date: 31 Aug 01 - 12:26 AM Congratulations! Sounds an awful lot like the inspiration as well for W.S. Gilbert's "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell" |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: David Coffin Date: 31 Aug 01 - 09:24 AM If anyone is interested in reading the book it is "In the Heart of the Sea" (winner of the 2001 National Book Award). Author Nathaniel Philbrick. Gloucesterman |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: radriano Date: 31 Aug 01 - 10:39 AM Congratulations, Gloucesterman! I just read another book on the same subject awhile ago titled The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex that was quite excellent. I can't remember at the moment the author's name. Another senior moment for old radriano (sigh). |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Kim C Date: 31 Aug 01 - 11:33 AM Oh wow! I will have to tape is as that is my birthday and I will be out making merry. I did see a short teaser for it the other day & didn't realize it was an actual documentary. I definitely want to see it!!!! :-) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Mark Clark Date: 31 Aug 01 - 02:33 PM David, that's terrific! I'll make a point to watch. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: David Coffin Date: 31 Aug 01 - 08:57 PM Radriano, What you probably read was The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex, written by the first mate of the Essex, Owen Chase, in 1821. Philbrick cronicles Chase's account along with actual records that dispute some of Chase's claims. It's great to read both books if you have the time. Incidently, one of my relatives, Owen Coffin, was on the vessel and was later cannabilized. Nice huh. Gloucesterman |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Lonesome EJ Date: 07 Sep 01 - 07:21 PM Sounds great! I'll be watching! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Joe Offer Date: 07 Sep 01 - 07:45 PM I'm singing tonight, but I've got my VCR set. Good luck, David! -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: katlaughing Date: 07 Sep 01 - 07:49 PM I programmed my cable box to remind me, so I am all set. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: JenEllen Date: 07 Sep 01 - 08:00 PM I'm trying to figure out if I ever get NBC (sorry, techno-idiot... I'm lucky if I can remember where I put the television...) If I do, I'll be watching too! Thanks and best of luck! ~J |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Amergin Date: 07 Sep 01 - 09:26 PM your tv is in the living room...right above the vcr... |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: SINSULL Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:09 PM Talk about senior moments - Yes it is "In The Heart Of The Sea". DOH! Just saw the program - most of it. House guests interrupted. Well done, David. When will it be shown again? I'd like to see it through uninterrupted. Any chance of an autographed tape in the auction? Autographed by a cannibalized relative no less. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Barry Finn Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:11 PM A great production & a retelling of the Essex. Congradulations David on a job well done, my only wish was that they would've allowed more of the music. A very sharp insite into the whaling trades of that time. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Mark Clark Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:19 PM David, I watched the program and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the music. Great job. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: catspaw49 Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:28 PM clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Dharmabum Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:35 PM Didn't get to watch it tonight,but taped it .looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. DB. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: kendall Date: 07 Sep 01 - 10:56 PM DAMN I WAS AT A DAVID MALLETT CONCERT AND MISSED IT ALTOGETHER |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Amergin Date: 07 Sep 01 - 11:01 PM well i'll be missing it...im at work... |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Lonesome EJ Date: 07 Sep 01 - 11:37 PM It was excellent, stirring television (which seems more and more like a contradiction in terms!) Well done, Gloucesterman! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: SINSULL Date: 07 Sep 01 - 11:43 PM Gloucester refused to hire the First Mate but New Bedford did...Is there more to this part of the story? Nevermind - something to play with at the library. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Lonesome EJ Date: 07 Sep 01 - 11:49 PM New Bedford was not a Quaker town like Nantucket. I think that accounts for some of Chase's acceptance there. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: katlaughing Date: 08 Sep 01 - 12:04 AM It was really wonderful and also fun to sea bits of Mystic Seaport in there. I, too, would love to have heard you more; lovely voice and the music was really great. As you have the same last name as the sacrificial cousin, are you a descendant? Really proud to be a Mudcatter, tonight, even more so! Thanks so much for letting us know and for doing such a beautiful job. kat (who couldn't help cheering for the whale, all the same:-) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Big Mick Date: 08 Sep 01 - 01:42 AM Wonderful job, sir. I know now that I have yet another artist to add to the burgeoning collection. I will be looking for CD's at Elderly asap. Bravo!! Mick |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Don Firth Date: 08 Sep 01 - 02:25 AM "Ha ha this-a-way. . . ." --Leadbelly |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: SINSULL Date: 08 Sep 01 - 10:27 AM The captain of the Three Brothers was also named Coffin. Another relative? |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: SINSULL Date: 08 Sep 01 - 12:53 PM oR WAS IT tWO bROTHERS? iT'S BEEN A LONG WEEKEND AND IT'S ONLY SATURDAY pm. dAMN cAPSLOCK! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: GUEST Date: 08 Sep 01 - 02:07 PM When they got to drifting towards cannibalism, I was about ready to save my time and move on to something else. I was so glad I didn't as it just got better and better from that point forward. The island: barren. Pollard: commanding a second ship and having to face the life boats again! Pollard's Essex shipmates signing up with him again. Pollard as a night watchman: a quiet, humble man, but in whom Melville could sense the impressive experience and strength of character. The death of the industry soon after the attack, as if the leviathan's sense of history was at work, right in the pin-point center of all wilderness. Yet all of the events had ambiguous hues, depending on how you shine the light on them. Could a grander story ever be written? |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: katlaughing Date: 08 Sep 01 - 02:22 PM I would like to have known more about the older black man who was their spiritual guide; the telling of him, coupled with the music, was really an incredible moment in the whole show. Still lingering in my mind, most likely for a long tiem to come. kat |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Barry Finn Date: 08 Sep 01 - 04:54 PM From the Ocean Almanac, "There is also an old story about Captain Pollard told on Nantucket. One of the relatives of a whaleman (it never id's the uncle) who had been in the captain's boat supposedly met him in the street & asked him if he knew his uncle. "Did I know him!" Pollard exclaimed. "Hell, man, I ate him".
A bit of Nantucket folklore or gospel, I don't know?
The Ocean Almanac also names the whale as Mocha Dick first sighted off Mocha Island near the Chilean coast from which the white whale took his name, whom it also says fought his last of many battles in Aug. of Aug. 1859 with a Swedish whaler off the Brazilian Banks. According to the log he measured 110' & weighed a ton for each swimming foot (?), was taken without much struggle, dying of old age, blind in the right eye, his head a mass of scars, 8 teeth broken & the rest worn down. The logs of 7 other whaler's (Desmond- English, Sarepta-Russian, Johnny Day-?, Crieff-Glasgow, Yankee-New Bedford, Dudley-English) has Mocha Dick attacking them. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: Hollowfox Date: 08 Sep 01 - 05:11 PM Many thanks, Gloucesterman, for letting us know about this excellent show. I'd have missed it entirely otherwise. As it was, I was able to tip off all my history-loving relatives, and so it was enjoyed by several more households than would have otherwise. (You sounded wonderful, BTW.) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: GUEST, Dan Date: 08 Sep 01 - 06:09 PM That's interesting, Mr. Finn. It took me a while to figure out that the Essex was not struck by Mocha Dick. (Bottom line: The whale that struck the Essex was not white: http://www.melville.org/diCurcio/45.htm.) But it's still a little unclear to me whether the striking of the Essex was the only time in history this has happened. (I think it is.) 1820: Attack on the Essex 1839: J.N. Reynolds publishes a story (fictional, I guess) detailing the slaying of Mocha Dick. The menace of Mocha Dick was apparently well known to all whalers by then. http://www.melville.org/reynolds.htm (But had he ever attacked the ship?) 1851 Meliville publishes Moby Dick. 1859 Swedish whaler takes Mocha Dick (with twenty harpoons in him, by some rumours) off the Brazilian Banks (are those in the Pacific?) So was the Essex was the first to learn of sperm whale attacks, by many, or several different sperm whales, or is it the only such attack, ever? (I had always had the impression these were docile beasts being plucked out of the water in an industry that was dangerous for other reasons.) Apparently Melville in Chapter 45 tries to document other such incidents, but he doesn't. Am I wrong in concluding The Essex is the only time this ever happened, and it wasn't by Mocha Dick? |
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: David Coffin Date: 08 Sep 01 - 07:50 PM Wow, I just checked back in with this thread and was thrilled by all the support. I'll try to answer some of the personal queries. Yes Pollard's cousin, Owen Coffin, was a relative of mine. Actually, all Coffin's are related as we all are descendants of Tristram Coffin who bought a large part of Nantucket in 1659. Big Mick, I don't know what "Elderly" is but my cds are only available locally in the Gloucester- Boston area and on my website www.davidcoffin.com I am my own distributer. One disappointment I had was the lack of barnicles on the whaling boats and the cleanliness of the shirts. Ahhh, what are you gonna do??? Thanks again all you mudcatters.
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: GUEST, Dan Date: 08 Sep 01 - 08:31 PM The mystery deepens: "Mocha was blamed for wrecking seven ships and 20 boats, he had twenty harpoons in his body when taken in 1846." http://www.twistedhistory.com/issues/november/1114.html I can't even remember if the Essex whale had a harpoon in him when he attacked the ship. My impression was that he didn't, but a smaller whale did. (One writer blames Chase for repairing the small boat on board ship, as the hammering attracted the whale. Talk about 20:20 hindsight.) Music site? what? sorry. ..
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Subject: RE: Mudcatter on NBC From: GUEST Date: 08 Sep 01 - 08:56 PM Okay, here you go: The Essex attack was definitely the first on record. Here is a large collection of documented whale "attacks" and other encounters. http://www.mcallen.lib.tx.us/books/circumna/ci_41mob.htm It seems aggresive "attacks" by anything other than orcas are barely, if at all, documented, but: "Of the true whales, the finback, sperm, and gray have been regarded as the most dangerous, especially during the mating and calving season." As an aside, the author notes: "Although there is no space to relate it here, the escape of some of the crew of the Essex in a whaleboat, and their subsequent adventures until they reached South America, is one of the great untold sea stories of all time. . . . Another early recorded case was the ramming and sinking of the Ann Alexander by a whale in August 1851, the news of which provided a lucky coincidence for the sale of Moby Dick, which had just been published." Okay I'm done. |
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