In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by Nathaniel Philbrick
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nathaniel PhilbrickEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2000-05-08
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Viking Adult
Book Reviews of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Book Review: Captivating Story of Tragedy and Survival
Summary: 5 Stars
Nathaniel Philbrick's history of the whaleship Essex builds on First mate Owen Chase's account of the tragedy; he adds the perspective of cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, written over 50 years after the actual events. Few sources are available, and scholarship-wise, this story is only beginning to be told. To contradict the author's statement, this is an amazing adventure story, made more astounding because its true. Philbrick also includes plenty of background to aid in comprehension by modern readers with no prior knowledge of whaling, especially the eccentricities of early 19th century Nantucket. This author seems well-qualified in this regard. This book is an informative and entertaining blend of the tragedy of the Essex, background, possible motivating factors, and subsequent developments.
It is a curious footnote to history that this story was well-known during the 19th century but almost forgotten today, much like the history of the whaling industry and sea voyages in general. No embellishment nor hindsight moralizing is necessary, nor does Philbrick force any. He is a tactful author, and the facts as much as we know them are more than enough to provide a thrilling tale. This is the way that history should be written; its an absorbing read, framed in the context of historical development. It is neither too difficult for a novice, nor too elementary for the well-versed.
Summary of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
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