In the Heart of the Sea

off the lethargy of our senses, and seemed to take another, and a fresh existence.” At first glance, the island bore an eerie resemblance to their native Nantucket: a low rise of sand topped with green. Chase called it “a basking paradise before our longing eyes.” Nickerson immediately assumed that it marked “the final end to [our] long confinement and sufferings,” and added, “Never have my eyes rested on anything so pleasingly beautiful.”
    It wasn’t long before the men in the other two boats had seen the island. Spontaneous cheers rose from their cracked and swollen lips. “It is not within the scope of human calculation,” Chase wrote, “to divine what the feelings of our hearts were on this occasion. Alternate expectation, fear, gratitude, surprise, and exultation, each swayed our minds, and quickened our exertions.”
    By eleven o’clock they were within a quarter mile of the island. They could now see that instead of sand, it was made mostly of rock, with thirty-foot vertical cliffs lining the shore. Beyond the cliffs, the interior of the island was amazingly flat, yet “fresh and green with vegetation.” This boded well, they assured themselves, for the presence of ample supplies of water.
    Pollard and Chase studied their copies of Bowditch’s Navigator. Judging from the day’s previous observation, they determined it must be Ducie Island at latitude 24°20’ south, longitude 124 °40’ west. After a month at sea, after traveling approximately 1,500 nautical miles, they were farther from the coast of South America than when they had started.
    The men’s immediate concern was that the island might be inhabited. “In our present state,” Nickerson wrote, “we could have made but feeble resistance to an attack from natives.” Keeping about a hundred yards from shore, they began sailing around the island. “We . . . frequently fir[ed] a pistol,” Nickerson remembered, “as we glided past some valley or nook in the woods to arouse its inhabitants should there be any within hearing. But neither friend nor foe appeared.”
    The island was an irregular oblong, about six miles long and three miles wide, rimmed by a jagged ledge of rocks and coral. The three boat-crews gradually made their way to the north end, which put them in the lee of the southeasterly trades. At a bend in the shoreline they found the island’s largest beach. “[T]his seemed the most promising position we had seen,” Nickerson wrote, “to make an attempt to land with our boats.” But first Chase would lead a preliminary scouting party while the three boats stood offshore, just in case they “should unexpectedly find savages in ambush.”
    Chase, with musket in hand, and two others were dropped off on a large rock. By the time they’d waded ashore, they were already exhausted. “Upon arriving at the beach,” the first mate recalled, “it was necessary to take a little breath, and we laid down for a few minutes to rest our weak bodies.” They sat on the coarse coral sand, drinking in the sights and sounds of a stunningly beautiful island world. The cliffs behind them were festooned with flowers, shrubs, grasses, and vines. Birds flew about them, seemingly unconcerned by the men’s presence. After a month of deprivation and suffering, they were about to enjoy, Chase was convinced, “a rich banquet of food and drink.” But first they had to find a source of water.
    They split up, each one hobbling down the uneven beach in a different direction. In an inlet Chase was able to spear an eighteen-inch fish with the ramrod of his musket. He dragged the fish onto the shore and immediately sat down to eat. His two companions joined him, and in less than ten minutes the fish was consumed—“bones, and skin, and scales, and all.”
    They now imagined they were strong enough to attempt a climb of the cliffs, which they figured to be the most probable source of water. But instead of rocks glistening with moisture, Chase found a dry, scrubby wall of dead coral. The shrubs and vines were not strong enough to support his weight, forcing him to grab the cutting edges of coral. Slashed and bruised, Chase realized he did not have the strength to reach the top.
    The euphoria of only a few hours before gave way to the realization that this sterile outcropping of fossilized sea organisms might be without drinkable water. If this was true, every second they remained on the island reduced their already slim chances of