It was a single well-documented event with survivors to tell the story. And the story of the survivors itself is a harrowing tale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

It was a single well-documented event with survivors to tell the story. And the story of the survivors itself is a harrowing tale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) It's entirely possible there were other incidents and the loss of ship and crew was just written off to "lost at sea".