Is In the Heart of the Sea based on a true story? Details explored

Like the name of the film, In the Heart of the Sea, the audience should know we have to dive deeper into the heart of the story. That movie is based on not one but a couple of events, though one is a minor one but the other one is actually the heart of it.

Sadly, it was one of the two flops by Warner Bros. in 2015, despite the God of Thunder, Spider-Man, and Tommy Shelby joining the whaleship Essex. To that end, the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, Cillian Murphy, and more.

It tells the story of how a group of whale hunters were hunted by a whale, which led to reluctant cannibalism. Interestingly, the film's story was inspired by a story based on the account that eventually appears in the movie. That sounds a bit confusing, so let's untangle the entangled.

Roots of In the Heart of the Sea goes back to the 1870s

To reach the very core of it, we will see it from the ground up. That said, the sail originally began in 1819 when Thomas Nickerson (played by Tom Holland in the film) joined the ill-fated Essex as a cabin boy alongside Owen Chase and others. That wasn't really a smooth sailing journey, as showcased in In the Heart of the Sea.

Whatever happened there, Nickerson jotted down an account of the ordeal in 1876. Now Herman Melville wanted to write a story so he met Nickerson in 1850, who is now an innkeeper. Interestingly, they never met in reality; it was just shown in the film.

In reality, Melville got an account written by Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth in the film) via his son, William Henry Chase. Owen and Thomas have different accounts of their experiences, namely Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex and The Loss of the Ship "Essex," respectively. This inspired Melville's infamous work, Moby-Dick.

Now, that brings us to the year 2000, when Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex was published, which is based on Thomas Nickerson's work. The 2015 movie is based on this nonfiction.

Who survived the Essex aftermath?

In the Heart of the Sea failed to perform at the box office. (Image via Warner Bros. Pictures)

Most of the audiences know, as per the film, that five men survived In the Heart of the Sea's end, including Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), First Mate Owen Chase, Thomas Nickerson, Benjamin Lawrence (Joseph Mawle), and Charles Ramsdell (Sam Keeley).

In the movie, Pollard reveals what happened during the journey despite the ship owner's request to stay quiet to protect the industry's reputation. However, such an account is not found in the history. He again returned to sea to captain another ship called Two Brothers, which, too, sank. He became famous as the doomed captain, never to sail again.

Chris Hemsworth's character returns to sailing again as a merchant captain, which was the same for Owen back in 1821, except that he never became a merchant captain. He returned as the first mate for a whaler called Florida and retired in 1840 after wearing a range of hats.

Nickerson returned to the sea again, unlike what was shown in the film, where he was an innkeeper. He began as a boat steerer on Two Brothers and later worked his way up to captain.

The remaining two, Benjamin Lawrence and Charles Ramsdell went on with their lives too and sailed the whaling ships.