TEACHER'S RESOURCES: VIDEO ACTIVITY

In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.

It's a story which takes us to the mid-19th century, when America was running on whale oil and Herman Melvile persuades on the survivors to tell the story, getting the inspiration to write Moby Dick.

 Click on the picture below to download four activities covering aspects such as the whale hunting and the oil industry, the USA at that time, Moby Dick, etc.