Essex Cabinets
The Essex Cabinet
Traditional cabinets only project sound from the front of the speaker, absorbing all the energy from the back. Essex cabinets, however, redirect the sound produced by the back of the speaker and project it out a port in the front. This enables the cabinet to sound fatter and louder than traditional cabinets of comparable size. Essex cabinets are constructed from 3/4“ birch plywood and are slightly bigger than an average cabinet, further adding to the surprisingly large tone. A unique one-piece face frame design results in an incredibly stable and rigid cabinet.
Dimensions:
1x12: 22” W x 17” H x 11.5” D
Cabinet in photos is configured:
Box: 3/4” Birch Plywood, Ported One Piece Face Frame
Speaker: 1 x 12” Hellatone 30 Speaker
Fabrics: Mojotone
Hardware: Mojotone
Behind the Name
Sperm Whales and the Whaleship Essex
The loudest animal in the world is the sperm whale. Their right nasal passage contains air-filled sacs that reflect and amplify sound, then force air through a pair of flaps called “monkey lips”. When these lips are slammed together, they create a click that is further amplified by the whale’s entire skull. The resulting sound can reach levels as high as 236 decibels. For reference, a shotgun is around 160 decibels, and the loudest sound ever measured by NASA, the launch of the Saturn-V rocket, came in at 204 decibels. Since the decibel scale is logarithmic rather than linear, a sperm whale is over 6000 times louder than a shotgun and nearly 40 times louder than the Saturn-V rocket. Sailors in the 1800s likened the sound to hammers beating on the ship’s wooden hull, and so gave whales the nickname “carpenter fish”.
The whaleship Essex set sail from Nantucket on August 12, 1819 in search of whales. Whale oil was a valuable commodity used in lamps, candles, soap, cosmetics, lubrication, and more. The highest quality oil was sourced from sperm whales. On November 20, 1820, somewhere in the south Pacific, the Essex was attacked by a sperm whale some 85 feet in length. The whale rammed the ship twice, stoving in the ship’s bow and forcing the crew to abandon ship in three small whaleboats which soon became separated during a storm.
The first boat ran out of rations, and when Lawson Thomas died of starvation, the rest resorted to cannibalism. After about 2 weeks, the “rations” were again exhausted. The remaining men drew straws to decide who would take Thomas’ place, and Owen Coffin was that man. When offered a reprieve, he replied “No, I like my lot as well as any other.”
On the second boat, Isaac Cole was the first to die of starvation and, much like the first boat, the second resorted to cannibalism as well.
These two whaleboats were found and rescued 89 and 93 days after the attack. The third was never found. Only eight of the original 21 crew members of the Essex survived; seven had been eaten. All eight survivors would return to the sea within months of returning home.
The story of the whaleship Essex inspired Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick.
For those interested:
Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Penguin Books, 2001.
Wagner, Eric. “The Sperm Whale’s Deadly Call.” Smithsonian.Com, 1 Dec. 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-sperm-whales-deadly-call-94653/.