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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) It's entirely possible there were other incidents and the loss of ship and crew was just written off to "lost at sea".

A single whaler in 1820 versus a spate of events since a few months back seem rather unrelated

Only if you assume that the inspirational event in 1820 was the only time it happened.

I don't think the Georgians had the ability or inclination to document every time a whale took down a ship around the whole planet.

not a lot of people knew how to write back then?

But a lot of people knew how to tell stories in bars and a lot of people who knew how to write spent time in bars.