p.m. on August 22, they sighted and were rescued by the Nantucket whaler Nantucket under the command of Captain Gibbs. A last attempt to retrieve anything from the Ann Alexander was abandoned due to rough seas, and the crew was eventually landed in Paita on September 15, 1851. They all returned to New York via the schooner Providence on October 12. Melville and Moby-Dick Just a few months later, October 18, 1851, and November 14, 1851, the first editions of Hermann Melville's great whaling novel Moby-Dick, inspired by the Essex attack, were published in London and New York City. Melville commented, "Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexander whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster." Aftermath Weak with infection from the two harpoons and pieces of timber from the attack embedded in its head, the whale was caught and killed five months later by the crew of the Rebecca Simms, and yielded 70–80 barrels of oil. While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the Union in 1807, the Essex incident some 30 years beforehand was the only other documented case of a whale deliberately attacking, holing, and sinking a ship. However, these two incidents are probably not as much of a freak occurrence as they appear to be. Observations of aggression in male cetaceans, and more generally in male artiodactyls, suggest that head-butting during male-male aggression is a basal behavior. Carrier, Deban, & Otterstrom (2002) suggest that the enlarged melon or spermaceti organ may have evolved into a battering ram, used to injure an opponent in such attacks. The ability of the sperm whale to aggressively attack and destroy ships some 3–5 times its body mass in this manner is therefore hardly surprising. The 5 month period that elapsed between the sinking of the Ann Alexander and the killing of the whale involved, demonstrates that long-term survival was possible after combat with a much larger ship and so, presumably, with another whale as well. See also In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000), a National Book Award-winning work of maritime history by Nathaniel Philbrick telling the Essex story from the point of view of both Nickerson and Chase. In the Heart of the Sea'' (2015 film),