[AMERICANA]. CHASE, Owen (1797-1869). Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex of Nantucket; Which Was Attacked and Finally Destroyed by a Large Spermaceti-Whale, in the Pacific Ocean; with an Account of the Unparalleled Sufferings of the Captain and Crew… New York: W. B. Gilley, 1821. 12mo. 128 pp. Approximately 7 ½ x 4 ½”. Bound in original plain blue boards, rebacked to style in modern beige paper with modern printed paper label on spine, later (late 19th to early 20th century) endleaves (original boards worn, soiled, endleaves foxed, text leaves edgeworn with short tears, soiled, foxed, several leaves creased at upper corner, p. 101/102 bound out of sequence after p. 103/104, several leaves occasionally creased, rear endleaves dampstained at lower margins). Still, a good copy. THE EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF A LARGE WHALE RAMMING AND SINKING A WHALE SHIP, AND A SOURCE BOOK FOR HERMAN MELVILLE’S MOBY-DICK. This book relates not only the attack on the Essex, but the terrible privations suffered by the captain and crew in open boats for three months. Only 8 crew members (out of 20) survived, the crew members surviving by cannibalism. Melville extensively researched this incident and used it as basis for Moby-Dick (1851). “He cites [the narrative of the Essex] in Chapter 45 of Moby-Dick, ‘The Affidavit,’ as corroborating ‘the most marvelous event in this book’ (p. 181), meaning the sinking of the Pequod” (Sealts, p. 69). Melville even used a quote from Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck… (“‘My God! Mr. Chase, what is the matter?’ I answered, ‘we have been stove by a whale’“) which appears in Moby-Dick as one of the “Extracts”. Hill, p. 50. Howes C-318 (“c”). Huntress 107. Sabin 12189.