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In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
"With its huge, scarred head halfway out of the water and its tail beating the ocean into a white-water wake more than forty feet across, the whale approached the ship at twice its original speed - at least six knots. With a tremendous cracking and splintering of oak, it struck the ship just beneath the anchor secured at the cat-head on the port bow..."
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.
At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.
At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.
302 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2000
About the author
Nathaniel Philbrick
46 books3,267 followersPhilbrick was Brown’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978; that year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI; today he and his wife Melissa sail their Beetle Cat Clio and their Tiffany Jane 34 Marie-J in the waters surrounding Nantucket Island.
After grad school, Philbrick worked for four years at Sailing World magazine; was a freelancer for a number of years, during which time he wrote/edited several sailing books, including Yaahting: A Parody (1984), for which he was the editor-in-chief; during this time he was also the primary caregiver for his two children. After moving to Nantucket in 1986, he became interested in the history of the island and wrote Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People. He was offered the opportunity to start the Egan Maritime Institute in 1995, and in 2000 he published In the Heart of the Sea, followed by Sea of Glory, in 2003, and Mayflower. He is presently at work on a book about the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Mayflower was a finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. In the Heart of the Sea won the National Book Award for nonfiction; Revenge of the Whale won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; Sea of Glory won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. Philbrick has also received the Byrne Waterman Award from the Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum, the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society, the Boston History Award from the Bostonian Society, and the New England Book Award from the New England Independent Booksellers Association.
from his website
After grad school, Philbrick worked for four years at Sailing World magazine; was a freelancer for a number of years, during which time he wrote/edited several sailing books, including Yaahting: A Parody (1984), for which he was the editor-in-chief; during this time he was also the primary caregiver for his two children. After moving to Nantucket in 1986, he became interested in the history of the island and wrote Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People. He was offered the opportunity to start the Egan Maritime Institute in 1995, and in 2000 he published In the Heart of the Sea, followed by Sea of Glory, in 2003, and Mayflower. He is presently at work on a book about the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Mayflower was a finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. In the Heart of the Sea won the National Book Award for nonfiction; Revenge of the Whale won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; Sea of Glory won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. Philbrick has also received the Byrne Waterman Award from the Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum, the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society, the Boston History Award from the Bostonian Society, and the New England Book Award from the New England Independent Booksellers Association.
from his website
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January 12, 2019
”I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods [500 m or 550 yards] directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots (44 km/h), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship."
—Owen Chase, first mate of the whaleship Essex.
“There she blows!” was as much a part of my vocabulary as a child as “Launch the torpedoes” or “Geronimo” or “Remember the Alamo.” I wasn’t using it correctly, as I was not hunting whales in the middle of Kansas, but I did use it as a rallying cry for a charge against my childhood chums as we chased each other from one end of the farm to the other. Of course, in 1820 when a sharp eyed lad in the crow’s nest spotted a spume on the horizon, he would yell down to his crew mates, “There she blows!” and the chase would be on.
The Nantucket ship Essex was commanded by a newly commissioned captain by the name of George Pollard. The ship, an old vessel, had always been thought of as a lucky ship, given that it had returned so many profits to the owners. Much of the crew was green and were on their first whaling voyage. The ranks of Nantucket sailors had been filled out with some African Americans and some men referred to as offshore men, meaning that they were not of Quaker Nantucket stock.
Early in the voyage, they hit a squall that nearly heels them over. “For the green hands, the sound alone was terrifying: the shrieking of the wind across the rigging and then a frenzied flapping of sails and creaking of the stays and mast.” Can you imagine that sound? I’d be convinced that I was about to perish, especially when the ship begins to list. Captain Pollard does not spring into action as quickly as he should, but does finally give the right orders, and the good ship Essex rights herself.
It was a foretaste of what was going to be a disastrous journey.
In the 19th century, over 200,000 sperm whales were harvested for their spermaceti. (770,000 in the twentieth century. We always improve at killing things.) A normal sized whale will have about 500 gallons of this semi-waxy substance in their heads. When exposed to air, it turns to a semi-liquid and looks...you guessed it...like sperm. This oily substance was used to lubricate machinery during the industrial revolution and to light lamps. Eventually, this oil was replaced by lard and then by petroleum, which probably saved the sperm whale population from extinction. Yea, petroleum industry! The whalers also harvested the ambergris from the digestive tract of the whale, which was used as a fixative in perfume. Women didn’t know it, but when they sprayed those beautiful scents on their necks and wrists, they were also spraying whale digestive juice on their carefully coiffed skins.
A sperm whale, what a beauty!
In this era, they did not have harpoons that are shot out of a cannon; they had to row right up next to the whale, and someone with the right skill and strength thrust the harpoon into the side of the whale. These are large mammals, the largest toothed whale, reaching upwards of 80 feet long (now only about 65 feet which has been attributed to the excessive hunting of the largest males who, therefore, did not have a chance to pass on their genes.) and weighing 45 tons. They also have the largest known brain of any extinct or modern animal weighing in at 17 lbs. If they can avoid the harpoons of man and keep out of the reach of Orcas, they can live up to 70 years. Once the harpoon was in the whale, the sailors became the fastest moving humans on the planet as the whale would try to escape by fleeing at upwards of 27 mph while pulling the boat and crew along with it.
It is about finding that sweet spot in the harpoon so it is balanced perfectly in your hand. You can smell the whale. You can hear the grunts, groans, and farts of the rowers as they try to keep you level with the creature. Your face is slick with whale spume and sweat. You know you might only have one chance at this. You let go the thunderbolt in your hand and hope you will hear the meaty impact of a man killing a god.
It wasn’t unusual for green hands to upchuck over the side as they watched the death of a whale. Nathaniel Philbrick gives a description below that left tears stinging my eyes. There is something so majestic about a whale that even the most primitive thinkers among us must feel on some level that killing a whale is an affront against a higher power. When you kill something larger than yourself, something that displays such intelligence, you have to feel the world has been diminished.
”When the lance finally found its marks, the whale would begin to choke on its own blood, its spout transformed into a fifteen-to twenty-foot geyser of gore that prompted the mate to shout. ‘Chimney’s afire!’ As the blood rained down on them, the men took up the oars and backed furiously away, then paused to watch as the whale went into what was known as its flurry. Beating the water with its tail, snapping at the air with its jaws--even as it regurgitated large chunks of fish and squid--the creature began to swim in an ever tightening circle. Then, just as abruptly as the attack had begun with the first thrust of the harpoon it ended. The whale fell motionless and silent, black corpse floating fin-up in a slick of its own blood and vomit.”
As I was looking through Rockwell Kent’s art for Moby Dick, I was surprised how well I remembered each of the sketches even though I haven’t read the book for decades.
So they take the oil, some blubber, and the ambergris; those parts had ready value that made Nantucket in the heyday of the whaling era very wealthy. ”The rest of it---the tons of meat, bone, and guts---were simply thrown away, creating festering rafts of offal that attracted birds, fish, and, of course, sharks. Just as the skinned corpses of buffaloes would soon dot the prairies of the American West, so did the headless gray remains of sperm whales litter the Pacific Ocean in the nineteenth century.” As I was reading this, even before Philbrick brought forth the comparison to the eradication of the buffalo in the same century, I was having flashbacks to Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams.
I had to stop and go read something else for the rest of the day. I needed a break to absorb what I had read and also to create some distance between myself and the horrifying images of whales dying that Philbrick so vividly shared with me.
As I did with the buffalos in Butcher’s Crossing, I also found myself rooting for the whales.
Something triggered in one whale, a monster 85 foot creature, who instead of fleeing from these puny humans turned around and crashed into them. ”Instead of acting as a whale was supposed to---as a creature ‘never before suspected of premeditated violence, and proverbial for its inoffensiveness’---this big bull had been possessed by what Chase finally took to be a very human concern for the other whales.”
Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy and youngest member of the crew, drew this sketch of the attack.
This St. George of the deep, more dragon than man, with two mighty thrusts with his head turned the Essex into a splintered, sinking wreck. This story of the Essex is what so famously inspired Herman Melville to write his masterpiece Moby Dick. A commercial failure when released, over time has proved to be a canon of American literature. The story of the Essex has continued to be taught in American History classes, inspiring children with the tale of survival. Moby Dick may not appear on many high school syllabuses anymore. The daunting 600+ page count is simply too much for the curricula of the school system, but I did see it appear on a college syllabi not too long ago; unfortunately only excerpts were being studied.
The survival of eight crew members out of a total of twenty is harrowing indeed. A new captain used to taking orders instead of giving orders listened to some bad advice from his first and second mates. 95 days in a boat could have been shortened to mere weeks if he had stuck to his original thinking. There are some interesting discussions about the demise of all the black sailors and of most of the offshore men. In fact, the only three offshore men who survived are the ones who opted to stay on an island rather than continue in the boats. The Nantucket men stuck together, and all five who stayed in the boats who survived were Nantucket men.
Philbrick will describe the effects on the body, experiencing extreme thirst and the metabolic rates. Women and older people with lower metabolism actually do better in cold water or in cases of extreme hunger. As gallant as vigorous men like to be, giving extra rations to women and older people, they actually, logically, should be keeping those rations for themselves. Men with high muscle content, who naturally need more calories, will suffer the quickest loss of mass and will die first.
Captain Pollard is older and slightly rotund, which gives him an advantage over the younger, leaner sailors. As food and water disappear, they must resort to the most desperate of measures. ”The men were not much more than skeletons themselves, and the story that would be passed from ship to ship in the months ahead was that they were ‘found sucking the bones of their dead mess mates, which they were loath to part with.’”
There is a 2015 movie based on this book that is also called In the Heart of the Sea starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, and Cillian Murphy.
I love the visual that the movie poster conveys.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
—Owen Chase, first mate of the whaleship Essex.
“There she blows!” was as much a part of my vocabulary as a child as “Launch the torpedoes” or “Geronimo” or “Remember the Alamo.” I wasn’t using it correctly, as I was not hunting whales in the middle of Kansas, but I did use it as a rallying cry for a charge against my childhood chums as we chased each other from one end of the farm to the other. Of course, in 1820 when a sharp eyed lad in the crow’s nest spotted a spume on the horizon, he would yell down to his crew mates, “There she blows!” and the chase would be on.
The Nantucket ship Essex was commanded by a newly commissioned captain by the name of George Pollard. The ship, an old vessel, had always been thought of as a lucky ship, given that it had returned so many profits to the owners. Much of the crew was green and were on their first whaling voyage. The ranks of Nantucket sailors had been filled out with some African Americans and some men referred to as offshore men, meaning that they were not of Quaker Nantucket stock.
Early in the voyage, they hit a squall that nearly heels them over. “For the green hands, the sound alone was terrifying: the shrieking of the wind across the rigging and then a frenzied flapping of sails and creaking of the stays and mast.” Can you imagine that sound? I’d be convinced that I was about to perish, especially when the ship begins to list. Captain Pollard does not spring into action as quickly as he should, but does finally give the right orders, and the good ship Essex rights herself.
It was a foretaste of what was going to be a disastrous journey.
In the 19th century, over 200,000 sperm whales were harvested for their spermaceti. (770,000 in the twentieth century. We always improve at killing things.) A normal sized whale will have about 500 gallons of this semi-waxy substance in their heads. When exposed to air, it turns to a semi-liquid and looks...you guessed it...like sperm. This oily substance was used to lubricate machinery during the industrial revolution and to light lamps. Eventually, this oil was replaced by lard and then by petroleum, which probably saved the sperm whale population from extinction. Yea, petroleum industry! The whalers also harvested the ambergris from the digestive tract of the whale, which was used as a fixative in perfume. Women didn’t know it, but when they sprayed those beautiful scents on their necks and wrists, they were also spraying whale digestive juice on their carefully coiffed skins.
A sperm whale, what a beauty!
In this era, they did not have harpoons that are shot out of a cannon; they had to row right up next to the whale, and someone with the right skill and strength thrust the harpoon into the side of the whale. These are large mammals, the largest toothed whale, reaching upwards of 80 feet long (now only about 65 feet which has been attributed to the excessive hunting of the largest males who, therefore, did not have a chance to pass on their genes.) and weighing 45 tons. They also have the largest known brain of any extinct or modern animal weighing in at 17 lbs. If they can avoid the harpoons of man and keep out of the reach of Orcas, they can live up to 70 years. Once the harpoon was in the whale, the sailors became the fastest moving humans on the planet as the whale would try to escape by fleeing at upwards of 27 mph while pulling the boat and crew along with it.
It is about finding that sweet spot in the harpoon so it is balanced perfectly in your hand. You can smell the whale. You can hear the grunts, groans, and farts of the rowers as they try to keep you level with the creature. Your face is slick with whale spume and sweat. You know you might only have one chance at this. You let go the thunderbolt in your hand and hope you will hear the meaty impact of a man killing a god.
It wasn’t unusual for green hands to upchuck over the side as they watched the death of a whale. Nathaniel Philbrick gives a description below that left tears stinging my eyes. There is something so majestic about a whale that even the most primitive thinkers among us must feel on some level that killing a whale is an affront against a higher power. When you kill something larger than yourself, something that displays such intelligence, you have to feel the world has been diminished.
”When the lance finally found its marks, the whale would begin to choke on its own blood, its spout transformed into a fifteen-to twenty-foot geyser of gore that prompted the mate to shout. ‘Chimney’s afire!’ As the blood rained down on them, the men took up the oars and backed furiously away, then paused to watch as the whale went into what was known as its flurry. Beating the water with its tail, snapping at the air with its jaws--even as it regurgitated large chunks of fish and squid--the creature began to swim in an ever tightening circle. Then, just as abruptly as the attack had begun with the first thrust of the harpoon it ended. The whale fell motionless and silent, black corpse floating fin-up in a slick of its own blood and vomit.”
As I was looking through Rockwell Kent’s art for Moby Dick, I was surprised how well I remembered each of the sketches even though I haven’t read the book for decades.
So they take the oil, some blubber, and the ambergris; those parts had ready value that made Nantucket in the heyday of the whaling era very wealthy. ”The rest of it---the tons of meat, bone, and guts---were simply thrown away, creating festering rafts of offal that attracted birds, fish, and, of course, sharks. Just as the skinned corpses of buffaloes would soon dot the prairies of the American West, so did the headless gray remains of sperm whales litter the Pacific Ocean in the nineteenth century.” As I was reading this, even before Philbrick brought forth the comparison to the eradication of the buffalo in the same century, I was having flashbacks to Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams.
I had to stop and go read something else for the rest of the day. I needed a break to absorb what I had read and also to create some distance between myself and the horrifying images of whales dying that Philbrick so vividly shared with me.
As I did with the buffalos in Butcher’s Crossing, I also found myself rooting for the whales.
Something triggered in one whale, a monster 85 foot creature, who instead of fleeing from these puny humans turned around and crashed into them. ”Instead of acting as a whale was supposed to---as a creature ‘never before suspected of premeditated violence, and proverbial for its inoffensiveness’---this big bull had been possessed by what Chase finally took to be a very human concern for the other whales.”
Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy and youngest member of the crew, drew this sketch of the attack.
This St. George of the deep, more dragon than man, with two mighty thrusts with his head turned the Essex into a splintered, sinking wreck. This story of the Essex is what so famously inspired Herman Melville to write his masterpiece Moby Dick. A commercial failure when released, over time has proved to be a canon of American literature. The story of the Essex has continued to be taught in American History classes, inspiring children with the tale of survival. Moby Dick may not appear on many high school syllabuses anymore. The daunting 600+ page count is simply too much for the curricula of the school system, but I did see it appear on a college syllabi not too long ago; unfortunately only excerpts were being studied.
The survival of eight crew members out of a total of twenty is harrowing indeed. A new captain used to taking orders instead of giving orders listened to some bad advice from his first and second mates. 95 days in a boat could have been shortened to mere weeks if he had stuck to his original thinking. There are some interesting discussions about the demise of all the black sailors and of most of the offshore men. In fact, the only three offshore men who survived are the ones who opted to stay on an island rather than continue in the boats. The Nantucket men stuck together, and all five who stayed in the boats who survived were Nantucket men.
Philbrick will describe the effects on the body, experiencing extreme thirst and the metabolic rates. Women and older people with lower metabolism actually do better in cold water or in cases of extreme hunger. As gallant as vigorous men like to be, giving extra rations to women and older people, they actually, logically, should be keeping those rations for themselves. Men with high muscle content, who naturally need more calories, will suffer the quickest loss of mass and will die first.
Captain Pollard is older and slightly rotund, which gives him an advantage over the younger, leaner sailors. As food and water disappear, they must resort to the most desperate of measures. ”The men were not much more than skeletons themselves, and the story that would be passed from ship to ship in the months ahead was that they were ‘found sucking the bones of their dead mess mates, which they were loath to part with.’”
Flesh
Blood
Bone
Marrow
There is a 2015 movie based on this book that is also called In the Heart of the Sea starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, and Cillian Murphy.
I love the visual that the movie poster conveys.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
December 22, 2015
There's one thing you need to know about me: I’ve never listened to a song by Rush all the way through. Really. If Alvin and the Chipmunks were re-imagined as opera singers, the lead singer could be bass. I can't take them seriously.
Okay, okay. Really there are two things you need to know about me: I distrust people who walk on the balls of their feet. You know, that little bounce? Call it instinct, but I see something morally deficient in it. It's like Nature is giving the rest of us a heads-up.
Hold on. There are three things you need to know about me: At the age of three, I watched the movie Jaws in its entirety from the back seat of my parents Volkswagen Bug at a drive-in theater. Poor things thought I was asleep and had absolutely no intention of traumatizing their only child. To this day, I have an abnormal fear of the ocean, yet I am morbidly drawn to stories about the same.
No, wait. There're four things you need to know about me: I don’t like to work. At all. I'd go so far as to assert that I am entirely abnormal in my contempt for it. A sort of cynical pragmatism colors my approach to adult life and all its attendant cares. I think of myself as seeking out a sort of hedonistic equilibrium whereby I maximize the amount of money I earn while doing the least amount of work. And to that end, I am happy to report, I have been largely successful.
Why am I sharing all this? Because, taken in total, it shows that I would make a very poor excuse of a whaleman in this, our present age, let alone the early-19th century. Sure, it's altogether speculative to take a modern fellow like myself and plant him in an earlier time. What if I'd been raised in a whaling family? A whaling tradition?
Bosh.
Trust me in this. I was raised in a working class family and it didn't take me long to understand what work does to you: it takes your best years, covering them in spoonfuls of regret little by little until you realize too late all the money in the world can't buy back what you could've done, what you could've been. Why do we American inheritors of the Nantucket Quaker whaling business model always prove so stressed out whenever the United Nations releases its latest sociological metrics? Because we spend all our time away from our friends and families, doing stuff we don’t like, so we can buy stuff we don't need.
No. Leisure is the truest wealth. Me? I would've sought out some petty job, made merry in my off-hours and, hopefully, have been literate enough to enjoy some letter-writing and the occasional book.
Fine, you say. What's this got to do with Nathaniel Philbrick's book?
Well. It means all you overachieving-types would’ve been on that doomed ship while I sat comfortably on terra firma. You should be happy about that, at least. Consider some of the aforementioned details about me -- I'm obviously prone to psychological imbalance. I surely would have cannibalized you had we found ourselves in the dire circumstances of the crew of the Essex, adrift for over three months in the South Pacific. And my probability of success would've been more than fair: I stand 6'4" tall, have pointy eye teeth, and a trailer park adolescence mean streak. True, I am near-sighted, but this would only be a minor inconvenience since I would only have to track you around a twenty-foot long boat.
Where are all your Goodreads votes now, fancy pants?
Okay, okay. Really there are two things you need to know about me: I distrust people who walk on the balls of their feet. You know, that little bounce? Call it instinct, but I see something morally deficient in it. It's like Nature is giving the rest of us a heads-up.
Hold on. There are three things you need to know about me: At the age of three, I watched the movie Jaws in its entirety from the back seat of my parents Volkswagen Bug at a drive-in theater. Poor things thought I was asleep and had absolutely no intention of traumatizing their only child. To this day, I have an abnormal fear of the ocean, yet I am morbidly drawn to stories about the same.
No, wait. There're four things you need to know about me: I don’t like to work. At all. I'd go so far as to assert that I am entirely abnormal in my contempt for it. A sort of cynical pragmatism colors my approach to adult life and all its attendant cares. I think of myself as seeking out a sort of hedonistic equilibrium whereby I maximize the amount of money I earn while doing the least amount of work. And to that end, I am happy to report, I have been largely successful.
Why am I sharing all this? Because, taken in total, it shows that I would make a very poor excuse of a whaleman in this, our present age, let alone the early-19th century. Sure, it's altogether speculative to take a modern fellow like myself and plant him in an earlier time. What if I'd been raised in a whaling family? A whaling tradition?
Bosh.
Trust me in this. I was raised in a working class family and it didn't take me long to understand what work does to you: it takes your best years, covering them in spoonfuls of regret little by little until you realize too late all the money in the world can't buy back what you could've done, what you could've been. Why do we American inheritors of the Nantucket Quaker whaling business model always prove so stressed out whenever the United Nations releases its latest sociological metrics? Because we spend all our time away from our friends and families, doing stuff we don’t like, so we can buy stuff we don't need.
No. Leisure is the truest wealth. Me? I would've sought out some petty job, made merry in my off-hours and, hopefully, have been literate enough to enjoy some letter-writing and the occasional book.
Fine, you say. What's this got to do with Nathaniel Philbrick's book?
Well. It means all you overachieving-types would’ve been on that doomed ship while I sat comfortably on terra firma. You should be happy about that, at least. Consider some of the aforementioned details about me -- I'm obviously prone to psychological imbalance. I surely would have cannibalized you had we found ourselves in the dire circumstances of the crew of the Essex, adrift for over three months in the South Pacific. And my probability of success would've been more than fair: I stand 6'4" tall, have pointy eye teeth, and a trailer park adolescence mean streak. True, I am near-sighted, but this would only be a minor inconvenience since I would only have to track you around a twenty-foot long boat.
Where are all your Goodreads votes now, fancy pants?
May 12, 2008
I have never, ever, in my LIFE, met a nonfiction book I was unable to put down before. This may be because I am stupid, but I like to think it's because I'm interested in the details. Most nonfiction I've encountered is either written by:
a.) Someone who experienced something interesting, but who can't write about it in an interesting way, or
b.) Someone who perhaps usually writes about things in an interesting way, but who wasn't able to experience the critical subject firsthand.
Philbrick bridges the critical gap. What did the water look like when the 80 ton whale barreled toward the ship? What does it feel like to starve/thirst to death? What happens to your eyelids? What did Captain Pollard shout when his cousin's lot was drawn? Philbrick may not have been there in the whaleboats, but he knows so much about his topic, he may as well have been. (The notes and select bibliography themselves take up another 50-or-so pages, most of them primary sources.)
What's really impressive to me about all of the research Philbrick did, is how, through the overwhelming web of whaling and Nantucket and cannibalism that must have become his mind, he maintained a grip on what would interest his audience. Just as you begin to ask a question, he answers it. Just as you come to a realization ("wow, so the whales' social lives were structured a lot like the Nantucketers'") he articulates it -- of course, better than you had, and often utilizing the words "predator" and "prey". Masterful.
a.) Someone who experienced something interesting, but who can't write about it in an interesting way, or
b.) Someone who perhaps usually writes about things in an interesting way, but who wasn't able to experience the critical subject firsthand.
Philbrick bridges the critical gap. What did the water look like when the 80 ton whale barreled toward the ship? What does it feel like to starve/thirst to death? What happens to your eyelids? What did Captain Pollard shout when his cousin's lot was drawn? Philbrick may not have been there in the whaleboats, but he knows so much about his topic, he may as well have been. (The notes and select bibliography themselves take up another 50-or-so pages, most of them primary sources.)
What's really impressive to me about all of the research Philbrick did, is how, through the overwhelming web of whaling and Nantucket and cannibalism that must have become his mind, he maintained a grip on what would interest his audience. Just as you begin to ask a question, he answers it. Just as you come to a realization ("wow, so the whales' social lives were structured a lot like the Nantucketers'") he articulates it -- of course, better than you had, and often utilizing the words "predator" and "prey". Masterful.
October 20, 2013
Best piece of non-fiction I’ve read in years – I know it’s a cliché but you can’t make this stuff up! In 1819, a whaling ship is rammed by a sperm whale, not once but twice and the surviving crew drifts for 90 days in three tiny boats, Captain Bligh’s 48 day ordeal pales in comparison. They eventually turned to cannibalism which call me weird I didn’t have a problem with. A card carrying organ donor I figure I’m dead anyway - eat me. When it came down to drawing lots though, that pushed my buttons.
Well researched but never dry – a nail biter that reads like fiction. Delivered what I was expecting, a tragic tale that “happens to be one of the greatest true stories ever told” and so much more. The background on Nantucket well done, exploring the religious influence of Quakerism, how with the men gone for years at a time it was virtually run by women. Philbrick’s handling of the moral & ethical dilemmas these men struggled with was beautiful, the inclusion of the Melville / Captain George Pollard connection icing on the cake.
Cons: Maybe the characterizations could have been stronger, I wasn’t all that sympathetic to their plight but that’s probably not fair, I was routing for the whales. I did feel bad for them when they were later set upon by killer whales though, I mean enough already – being attacked by a 80 ft. sperm whale wasn’t enough? This city girl worked for a couple of summers on a 35 foot Gillnetter. Trust me, being in a small boat out in the middle of the Pacific surrounded by a pod of killer whales (they like salmon too) isintimidating friggin terrifying!
Warning: Animal lovers will find the description of whale slaughter harsh - their butchering aptly described “At night the deck of the Essex looked like something out of Dante's Inferno” As is the inhumane treatment of the giant tortoises they harvested from the Galapagos Islands – heart breaking.
The Movie: Ron Howard’s has begun film production – comes out in 2014
Well researched but never dry – a nail biter that reads like fiction. Delivered what I was expecting, a tragic tale that “happens to be one of the greatest true stories ever told” and so much more. The background on Nantucket well done, exploring the religious influence of Quakerism, how with the men gone for years at a time it was virtually run by women. Philbrick’s handling of the moral & ethical dilemmas these men struggled with was beautiful, the inclusion of the Melville / Captain George Pollard connection icing on the cake.
Cons: Maybe the characterizations could have been stronger, I wasn’t all that sympathetic to their plight but that’s probably not fair, I was routing for the whales. I did feel bad for them when they were later set upon by killer whales though, I mean enough already – being attacked by a 80 ft. sperm whale wasn’t enough? This city girl worked for a couple of summers on a 35 foot Gillnetter. Trust me, being in a small boat out in the middle of the Pacific surrounded by a pod of killer whales (they like salmon too) is
Warning: Animal lovers will find the description of whale slaughter harsh - their butchering aptly described “At night the deck of the Essex looked like something out of Dante's Inferno” As is the inhumane treatment of the giant tortoises they harvested from the Galapagos Islands – heart breaking.
The Movie: Ron Howard’s has begun film production – comes out in 2014
October 8, 2019
This book was a fantastic tale, the facts of which were an inspiration to Melville who met the surviving captain years later. The ship Essex headed to whaling groups in - as Phibrick excellently describes as the most desolate spot on Earth - a thousand miles off the coast of Chile in the Pacific. Beset by bad luck, the boat is stuck for weeks in the doldrums with no wind, struck by an unhappy (but not white) whale which founders the boat, and then struggle (mostly unsuccessfully) to survive with almost no food or water and almost no possible escape. It is a tale of human strength and desperation and highly readable. I read it before my third reading of Moby Dick and it was a fantastic background read. That being said, it is also an exciting standalone read.
January 27, 2015
Hang on. So the crew of the Essex (quite apart from their whole whale-killing society being an early contributor to majorly endangering the species as a whole):
-go on one of their epic whale-killing journeys;
-slaughter a bunch of whales;
-capture, abuse and slaughter a huge bunch of Galapagos tortoises;
-set fire to an entire Galapagos island for a fucking lark;
-get COMPLETELY UNFAIRLY, UNPROVOKEDLY AND WITH MALICIOUS INTENT attacked by a sperm whale (I mean, how very DARE that fucker?) so their ship sinks;
-proceed to aimlessly drift around the Pacific in three little boats for three months;
-manage through sheer ignorance and bad management to sail in the complete opposite direction from any number of islands that would have comfortably rescued them with no fuss at all;
-instead land on some barren rock that they eat bare of what few birds and crabs it has within about 3 days;
-then AGAIN proceed to sail in the completely wrong fucking direction because they're irrationally scared that more attainable islands might contain cannibals;
-then predictably run out of food and, instead of having to deal with completely hypothetical cannibals on some friendly island, turn into VERY FUCKING LITERAL CANNIBALS in their tiny boats;
-by not at all suspicious coincidence eat all the black guys first;
-the horribly incompetent captain ends up having his 17-year-old cousin shot and eaten (awkward homecoming, that: "Hey Nancy, so the good news is I'm alive!" -"Uhm, where's my teenage son that I entrusted specifically to your care?" -"Yeah well, you know how they say the dead live on inside us...?");
-then, once they've been whittled down by their own idiocy to one handful of pathetic morons, get rescued by sheer dumb luck;
...and we're thrilled and amazed at this brave feat of survival and human endurance HOW? Why? Really? Because I'm all Team Whale here.
The book was entertaining, though.
-go on one of their epic whale-killing journeys;
-slaughter a bunch of whales;
-capture, abuse and slaughter a huge bunch of Galapagos tortoises;
-set fire to an entire Galapagos island for a fucking lark;
-get COMPLETELY UNFAIRLY, UNPROVOKEDLY AND WITH MALICIOUS INTENT attacked by a sperm whale (I mean, how very DARE that fucker?) so their ship sinks;
-proceed to aimlessly drift around the Pacific in three little boats for three months;
-manage through sheer ignorance and bad management to sail in the complete opposite direction from any number of islands that would have comfortably rescued them with no fuss at all;
-instead land on some barren rock that they eat bare of what few birds and crabs it has within about 3 days;
-then AGAIN proceed to sail in the completely wrong fucking direction because they're irrationally scared that more attainable islands might contain cannibals;
-then predictably run out of food and, instead of having to deal with completely hypothetical cannibals on some friendly island, turn into VERY FUCKING LITERAL CANNIBALS in their tiny boats;
-by not at all suspicious coincidence eat all the black guys first;
-the horribly incompetent captain ends up having his 17-year-old cousin shot and eaten (awkward homecoming, that: "Hey Nancy, so the good news is I'm alive!" -"Uhm, where's my teenage son that I entrusted specifically to your care?" -"Yeah well, you know how they say the dead live on inside us...?");
-then, once they've been whittled down by their own idiocy to one handful of pathetic morons, get rescued by sheer dumb luck;
...and we're thrilled and amazed at this brave feat of survival and human endurance HOW? Why? Really? Because I'm all Team Whale here.
The book was entertaining, though.
January 1, 2016
"It was a tale of a whale-man's worst nightmare: of being left in a boat far from land with nothing left to eat or drink and perhaps worst of all......of a whale with the vindictiveness and guile of a man."
This deadly true story of the 1820 (85' long, 80 ton) whale attack on the Essex was not exactly what I expected, but oh so much more. It begins with background of Captain and crew, the unimaginable time spent away from home and how their wives coped in their absence often resorting to use of laudanum, opium and a plaster penis. (ouch!)
Anyway, a tragedy, that could have been avoided, takes survival to its ultimate limits......"For as long as men had been sailing the world's oceans, famished sailors had been sustaining themselves on the remains of dead shipmates"......as cannibalism is, for the most part, humanely described within this narrative.
While graphically vivid, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA turned out to be an exceptionally informative history lesson for me with an epilogue from Nathaniel Philbrick that says it all.....
"The Essex disaster is not a tale of adventure. It is a tragedy that happens to be one of the greatest true stories ever told."
MOBY DICK (1851) Now a must-read (I hope)
April 24, 2018
A phenomenal telling of the disaster at sea, that spurred Herman Melville to write Moby Dick,In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick is exceptional. Philbrick takes us inside the tragedy with painstaking care and newly discovered research. He describes hour to hour what happened on the ill-fated voyage. This is my favorite type of historical writing. It never feels stodgy or stilted. You feel like you are there suffering along with the crew. Ultimately, it is a tale of the optimism of the human spirit and our ability to overcome heinous circumstances.
May 26, 2017
This review is a Chris Hemsworth-free zone!
Yes, he was in the crappy film version of this book.
No, I won’t use any pics in my review.
Heh
There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who was so big he could…
The island of Nantucket has loads to answer for beyond smutty limericks. About 200 years ago, they were at the very pinnacle of the whale slaughtering business.
Top of the world, indeed.
The Nantucket whalers were about due for a cosmic bitch slap, hence the events depicted in this book.
Avast ye, Captain Karma!
Whaling vessel goes a sailin’ for whale oil -> they almost get capsized in a storm, but lose a few whaling boats, superstitious crew want to head to nearest Caribbean port and do some drinkin’ and whorin’, yet they sail on -> the crew wipes out some indigenous island species and set fire to another island for kicks -> the Essex gets sunk by a roid-rage whale
- > the crew is forced to abandon ship and against the better judgement of the spineless captain set sail in the smaller whale boats for South America ->
-> food runs out fast and it’s time to put the “other” red meat on the menu. No lobster bibs here!
I don’t know what the rest of Goodreaders think, but I’d rather start gnawing on the boat or a sail rather than eat the coxswain..
Well…maybe…Is that butter?
Hello, sailor! You can call me, Ishmael.
The Nantucket legacy of shame goes beyond what’s presented here. Herman Melville decided to base Moby Dick on the pre-cannibal events, so you are well within your rights to blame Nantucket for having to have sat through this book in Literature class and then have to come up with some sort of class project to illustrate points from the book:
A scratch and sniff diorama depicting the whaling industry.
Thar she blows! A papier-mache whale complete with fizzy (heh) stuff coming out of Moby’s blow hole (heh and heh).
An interpretive dance showing Ahab’s final confrontation with Moby complete with sparkly ribbons and such.
And of course there’s the essay questions:
Moby Dick: A tale of penis envy or a rollicking sea adventure or an object lesson in anger management? Pick one. Make sure you give specific answers from the text. 1500 words or more
Herman Melville: Freud called him a Sexually Frustrated Author and a whiny baby? Make sure you give specific examples from the text. 1000 words or more.
“Captain Ahab, Is that a harpoon in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” If Moby Dick could talk, what would he say to Captain Ahab? Make sure you give specific examples from the text. 500 words or less.
What I really thought of this book or a blurb that Goodreads can cut out and paste on Amazon
History comes alive in this fascinating, in-depth, briskly paced portrait of the Nantucket whaling industry and the horrific tragedy of the Essex.
It was a fine book until Philbrick chose to use the last chapter as way to serve up the irony of modern day Nantucket with a side of honey butter, fries, tartar sauce and a lemon wedge.
Nice detective work, Caped Crusader. Now go and change your soiled Bat-undies.
Buddy read with The Trish and, hopefully, as a way to apologize for the A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court buddy read fiasco, Holly.
September 13, 2018
MOBY-DICK is one of my favorite books, so I'm ashamed that it took me so long to read IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, the inspiration for Melville's classic and the true tale of the Essex's sinking by an angry sperm whale. I'm a sucker for historical nonfiction, especially when it concerns an event I have a little preexisting knowledge of. That said, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that the "great American novel" was based on a tale of such brutal survival and sheer terror.
Nathaniel Philbrick does an incredible job of bringing the story of the Essex's crew to life with liveliness and exquisite detail. Every consideration and moment of exhaustion, every nook and cranny of the ship and its contents, every emotion is fully felt through the author's precise research. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA is a book about the bold arrogance of man in early America, of our young nation's obsession with wealth and prominence, and of our unencumbered search for things farther, more dangerous, and a boldness of spirit that seems lost to time. The suffering endured by these whaling men of the sea is only matched by the sheer cruelty they inflicted upon the gentle giants below the waves—that is, until one ornery whale decided to fight back, and in turn, set forth the events that would forever change the island of Nantucket and inspired a future novel that would come to be known as one of literature's greatest triumphs.
A must-read for fans of MOBY-DICK, adventures on the early seas, and of nature's wrath and man's singular mixture of egotism and bravery.
Nathaniel Philbrick does an incredible job of bringing the story of the Essex's crew to life with liveliness and exquisite detail. Every consideration and moment of exhaustion, every nook and cranny of the ship and its contents, every emotion is fully felt through the author's precise research. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA is a book about the bold arrogance of man in early America, of our young nation's obsession with wealth and prominence, and of our unencumbered search for things farther, more dangerous, and a boldness of spirit that seems lost to time. The suffering endured by these whaling men of the sea is only matched by the sheer cruelty they inflicted upon the gentle giants below the waves—that is, until one ornery whale decided to fight back, and in turn, set forth the events that would forever change the island of Nantucket and inspired a future novel that would come to be known as one of literature's greatest triumphs.
A must-read for fans of MOBY-DICK, adventures on the early seas, and of nature's wrath and man's singular mixture of egotism and bravery.
January 8, 2024
Philbrick has made the story of the whaleship Essex very well known, taking the explanation of their fates and incorporating it into a wider study of Nantucket Island, whaling in the early 19th Century and many other comparative stories of shipwrecks and whaling into a comprehensive book in less than 250 pages (not including notes, bibliography, acknowledgements and index).
Not only does he cover all of this, but he does it in a comprehensive way, but a way that remains sensitive to the tragedy and circumstances, yet is graphic and detailed. He quotes from scientific studies (on such topics as dehydration, starvation and psychology), from the writing of many authors on whaling, and detailed history of commerce, trade and technology.
Details of the ships history, to the crewing, provisioning and departure from Nantucket, their voyage around the Cape to the newly discovered whaling grounds - known as the Offshore Grounds - as remote as they sound, some thousand miles west of the Galapagos Islands. Here the Essex is rammed by a massive Sperm Whale bull, and it founders, the men in their small whaleboats taking shelter in the lee. From here the three whaleboats led by the Captain (George Pollard), the First Mate (Owen Chase) and the Second Mate (Matthew Joy), are to try and make their return to land.
Philbrick examines the decisions made, the journey(s) and the survival methods. He discusses the cannibalism, the mental anguish. He describes in detail what starvation and dehydration are doing the the bodies and minds of the men (see quote below). He explains the circumstances of their rescue(s). There follow details of their lives after the Essex. From the twenty one strong crew (there is a deserter prior to departing Chile) twelve die and eight men survive, in three different rescues.
Well known as the source material for Melville's Moby Dick, First Mate Owen Chase's publication telling his story of the events Narrative of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex is one of the primary sources for Philbrick's book. Published some 150 years later, the writing of Thomas Nickerson, who was the cabin boy on board provides some alternative information. Woven with these is other source material from Nantucket sources and others.
Philbrick has done a great job of bringing all the stands together in what is a detailed book, yet a very quick read. I was particularly impressed with the way he handled the transitions from the Essex narrative to the background It has inspired me to read (again? I am not sure I finished it first time around) Moby Dick, so will add that to my 2024 target and tackle that soon.
P127
My review of Moby Dick
Not only does he cover all of this, but he does it in a comprehensive way, but a way that remains sensitive to the tragedy and circumstances, yet is graphic and detailed. He quotes from scientific studies (on such topics as dehydration, starvation and psychology), from the writing of many authors on whaling, and detailed history of commerce, trade and technology.
Details of the ships history, to the crewing, provisioning and departure from Nantucket, their voyage around the Cape to the newly discovered whaling grounds - known as the Offshore Grounds - as remote as they sound, some thousand miles west of the Galapagos Islands. Here the Essex is rammed by a massive Sperm Whale bull, and it founders, the men in their small whaleboats taking shelter in the lee. From here the three whaleboats led by the Captain (George Pollard), the First Mate (Owen Chase) and the Second Mate (Matthew Joy), are to try and make their return to land.
Philbrick examines the decisions made, the journey(s) and the survival methods. He discusses the cannibalism, the mental anguish. He describes in detail what starvation and dehydration are doing the the bodies and minds of the men (see quote below). He explains the circumstances of their rescue(s). There follow details of their lives after the Essex. From the twenty one strong crew (there is a deserter prior to departing Chile) twelve die and eight men survive, in three different rescues.
Well known as the source material for Melville's Moby Dick, First Mate Owen Chase's publication telling his story of the events Narrative of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex is one of the primary sources for Philbrick's book. Published some 150 years later, the writing of Thomas Nickerson, who was the cabin boy on board provides some alternative information. Woven with these is other source material from Nantucket sources and others.
Philbrick has done a great job of bringing all the stands together in what is a detailed book, yet a very quick read. I was particularly impressed with the way he handled the transitions from the Essex narrative to the background It has inspired me to read (again? I am not sure I finished it first time around) Moby Dick, so will add that to my 2024 target and tackle that soon.
P127
The Essex survivors had entered... the 'cotton-mouth' phase of thirst. Saliva becomes thick and foul-tasting; the tongue clings irritatingly to the teeth and the roof of the mouth. Even though speech is difficult sufferers are often moved to complain ceaselessly about their thirst until their voices become so cracked and hoarse they can speak no more. A lump seems to form in the throat, causing the sufferer to swallow repeatedly in a vain attempt to dislodge it. Severe pain is felt in the head and neck. The face feels full due to the shrinking of the skin. Hearing is affected, and many people hallucinate.5 stars.
Still to come for the Essex crew were the agonies of a mouth that has ceased to produce saliva. The tongue hardens into... 'a senseless weight, swinging on the still-soft root and striking foreignly against the teeth'. Speech becomes impossible, although the sufferers are known to moan and bellow. Next is the 'blood sweats' phase involving ' a progressive mummification of the initially living body'. The tongue swells to such proportion that it squeezes past the jaws. The eyelids crack and the eyeballs begin to weep tears of blood. The throat is so swollen that breathing becomes difficult, creating an incongruous yet terrifying sensation of drowning. Finally, as the power of the sun inexorably draws the remaining moisture from the body, there is 'living death'.
My review of Moby Dick
December 6, 2015
This was a fascinating and very readable true account of the whaleship Essex and its crew which left Nantucket in 1820 only to meet with disaster fifteen months later in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I have been interested in learning more about this tragedy for some time, but honestly didn't expect to become so absorbed in this book! Having very little knowledge of the whaling industry and maritime travel in general, I was nevertheless easily able to follow the story thanks to the talent of Nathaniel Philbrick. Providing the reader with a wealth of information, Philbrick fills in gaps of knowledge in a way that is compelling rather than mundane. The background of the Nantucketers and Quakerism, the historical details of the whaling ships, the hierarchy of the ship's crewmen, the particulars of sailing, the effects of starvation and dehydration, and even superstition are brought to light as a result of the author's extensive research.
The relationships between the captain, the first mate and the rest of the crew and the characteristics of these whalers seem to reflect an intriguing culture of its own in the world of whaling. I was amazed by some of the poor decisions made by this crew throughout their journey, even prior to their ship being rammed by the massive sperm whale. The level of violence involved in actually killing and processing a whale was astounding considering the extremely pious nature of these men; but as Philbrick notes: "Nantucketers saw no contradiction between their livelihood and their religion. God Himself had granted them dominion over the fishes and the sea." At the same time, this spiritual devotion must also have given these men strength during their days at sea while they struggled to survive thousands of miles from the shores they sought for their salvation. The human survival element of this book makes it a page-turner and is quite gripping and at times even terrifying and disturbing.
This is indeed a well-written and brilliantly researched book which I recommend to anyone interested in tales of survival. After learning that this true story of the Essex and the monstrous whale that caused her demise are the inspirations behind Herman Melville's writing, I have now renewed my desire to re-read that once-formidable book Moby Dick!
4 stars
The relationships between the captain, the first mate and the rest of the crew and the characteristics of these whalers seem to reflect an intriguing culture of its own in the world of whaling. I was amazed by some of the poor decisions made by this crew throughout their journey, even prior to their ship being rammed by the massive sperm whale. The level of violence involved in actually killing and processing a whale was astounding considering the extremely pious nature of these men; but as Philbrick notes: "Nantucketers saw no contradiction between their livelihood and their religion. God Himself had granted them dominion over the fishes and the sea." At the same time, this spiritual devotion must also have given these men strength during their days at sea while they struggled to survive thousands of miles from the shores they sought for their salvation. The human survival element of this book makes it a page-turner and is quite gripping and at times even terrifying and disturbing.
This is indeed a well-written and brilliantly researched book which I recommend to anyone interested in tales of survival. After learning that this true story of the Essex and the monstrous whale that caused her demise are the inspirations behind Herman Melville's writing, I have now renewed my desire to re-read that once-formidable book Moby Dick!
4 stars
December 23, 2013
This book was so engrossing that I felt as if I had worked on a whaling ship and had survived a disaster at sea.
In 1820, the whaleship Essex was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when a massive whale rammed the ship not once, but twice, sinking it. The crew had to scramble for provisions and escaped into three boats. They set sail for South America, which was nearly 3,000 miles away. They soon ran out of fresh water and food, and eventually resorted to cannibalism. Only eight men out of 20 survived. This tragedy was so famous in the 1800s that it inspired Herman Mellvile's novel Moby Dick.
Nathaniel Philbrick is a skilled writer of history, weaving together the details of the disaster and providing context to both the whaling industry in the 19th century and the island of Nantucket, which was considered home to most of the crew. Philbrick also considers the psychology and emotions of Captain George Pollard, First Mate Owen Chase, Cabin Boy Thomas Nickerson and of other crew members. The leadership style of Pollard is especially interesting; Philbrick compares him to other captains and explorers and wonders if some lives could have been saved if Pollard had been more authoritarian.
One of the details that is fascinating is that Pollard and the crew decided to try to reach South America, when they knew they were closer to several islands. They had heard legends about cannibals on the islands, and were afraid to go there: "Only a Nantucketer in November 1820 possessed the necessary combination of arrogance, ignorance and xenophobia to shun a beckoning (albeit unknown) island and choose instead an open-sea voyage of several thousand miles."
The book includes several pictures of what the Essex looked like, including a sketch from one of the survivors. Even though it was just a drawing, it was chilling to see a giant whale take aim at a ship. There are also several maps, including one featuring the entire voyage of the Essex: It left from Nantucket island in New England, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, then all the way down South America, around Cape Horn, then up the western coast of South America, reaching the Equator and then heading west, deep into the Pacific Ocean.
The sheer distance and magnitude of the journey boggles the mind. Nowadays we get grouchy if our Internet speed is too slow, or if our airplane flight is delayed a few hours because of weather. Reading about the patience, planning and fortitude required to survive such a journey -- even without the shipwreck -- is truly astounding.
Finally, I'd like to thank my fellow Goodreaders for recommending such an incredible work of nonfiction. This is what I love about this site: I doubt I would have read this if I hadn't seen several rave reviews from you fine folks. Now I'm hooked on Philbrick and want to read all of his books.
In 1820, the whaleship Essex was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when a massive whale rammed the ship not once, but twice, sinking it. The crew had to scramble for provisions and escaped into three boats. They set sail for South America, which was nearly 3,000 miles away. They soon ran out of fresh water and food, and eventually resorted to cannibalism. Only eight men out of 20 survived. This tragedy was so famous in the 1800s that it inspired Herman Mellvile's novel Moby Dick.
Nathaniel Philbrick is a skilled writer of history, weaving together the details of the disaster and providing context to both the whaling industry in the 19th century and the island of Nantucket, which was considered home to most of the crew. Philbrick also considers the psychology and emotions of Captain George Pollard, First Mate Owen Chase, Cabin Boy Thomas Nickerson and of other crew members. The leadership style of Pollard is especially interesting; Philbrick compares him to other captains and explorers and wonders if some lives could have been saved if Pollard had been more authoritarian.
One of the details that is fascinating is that Pollard and the crew decided to try to reach South America, when they knew they were closer to several islands. They had heard legends about cannibals on the islands, and were afraid to go there: "Only a Nantucketer in November 1820 possessed the necessary combination of arrogance, ignorance and xenophobia to shun a beckoning (albeit unknown) island and choose instead an open-sea voyage of several thousand miles."
The book includes several pictures of what the Essex looked like, including a sketch from one of the survivors. Even though it was just a drawing, it was chilling to see a giant whale take aim at a ship. There are also several maps, including one featuring the entire voyage of the Essex: It left from Nantucket island in New England, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, then all the way down South America, around Cape Horn, then up the western coast of South America, reaching the Equator and then heading west, deep into the Pacific Ocean.
The sheer distance and magnitude of the journey boggles the mind. Nowadays we get grouchy if our Internet speed is too slow, or if our airplane flight is delayed a few hours because of weather. Reading about the patience, planning and fortitude required to survive such a journey -- even without the shipwreck -- is truly astounding.
Finally, I'd like to thank my fellow Goodreaders for recommending such an incredible work of nonfiction. This is what I love about this site: I doubt I would have read this if I hadn't seen several rave reviews from you fine folks. Now I'm hooked on Philbrick and want to read all of his books.
August 9, 2015
OMG THIS IS BECOMING A MOVIE OMG OMG OMG I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW
February 24, 2016
WAY more exciting than I expected! Nathaniel Philbrick knows how to resurrect history into a living, breathing present, a present filled with tension and full-immersion.
If you have any interest in whaling, the age of sail, and shipwrecks, you'll not do better than In the Heart of the Sea. It's very much like the non-fiction version of Moby Dick, made all the more intense for being the real deal.
In fact, the historic event depicted in this book is the basis for Melville's story. Philbrick gives you many of the same whale facts as appear in Moby Dick but in a smaller, more manageable amount. Because this is non-fiction you expect facts and dates and text booky et ceteras. They don't sneak up on you like they do in Moby Dick, where readers joyously enjoying a romping whale of a tale are suddenly stove in and sunk by a lengthy treatise on whale and whaling facts.
Also, Philbrick just knows how to entertain. I even enjoyed his book on the Pilgrims...THE PILGRIMS, for the love of god! Even dull history comes alive in his hands. Frankly I'd rather read In the Heart... again a half dozen more times than read Melville's mammoth once more.
NOTE ON THE MOVIE VERSION
Little Opie from Mayberry directed the movie version of this book and did a fair job. Thor and Catelyn Stark are in it and they're all right. Actually, there's a ton of familiar faces in this one. Anyhow, the movie stays mostly faithful to the book and the true events as they happened. A few tweaks were made, no doubt for dramatic effect. Some of the actors' "Boston" accents are most successful than others. But honestly, I just went to see it because I was in the mood for a good, solid adventure flick. That it's based on a true story is always a plus. All the same, I'd stick with the book. Or, if you want to get all the facts straight (as straight as recorded history can provide) after seeing the movie, you should definitely give Philbrick's book a read.
If you have any interest in whaling, the age of sail, and shipwrecks, you'll not do better than In the Heart of the Sea. It's very much like the non-fiction version of Moby Dick, made all the more intense for being the real deal.
In fact, the historic event depicted in this book is the basis for Melville's story. Philbrick gives you many of the same whale facts as appear in Moby Dick but in a smaller, more manageable amount. Because this is non-fiction you expect facts and dates and text booky et ceteras. They don't sneak up on you like they do in Moby Dick, where readers joyously enjoying a romping whale of a tale are suddenly stove in and sunk by a lengthy treatise on whale and whaling facts.
Also, Philbrick just knows how to entertain. I even enjoyed his book on the Pilgrims...THE PILGRIMS, for the love of god! Even dull history comes alive in his hands. Frankly I'd rather read In the Heart... again a half dozen more times than read Melville's mammoth once more.
NOTE ON THE MOVIE VERSION
Little Opie from Mayberry directed the movie version of this book and did a fair job. Thor and Catelyn Stark are in it and they're all right. Actually, there's a ton of familiar faces in this one. Anyhow, the movie stays mostly faithful to the book and the true events as they happened. A few tweaks were made, no doubt for dramatic effect. Some of the actors' "Boston" accents are most successful than others. But honestly, I just went to see it because I was in the mood for a good, solid adventure flick. That it's based on a true story is always a plus. All the same, I'd stick with the book. Or, if you want to get all the facts straight (as straight as recorded history can provide) after seeing the movie, you should definitely give Philbrick's book a read.
April 27, 2016
I had a lot of trouble with Moby Dick. Finishing it, I mean. I picked it up and put it back down twice. By the time I finally finished it - a point of honor - I'd probably read 1200 pages of it. About 150 years later, the source material was published. In the Heart of the Sea tells of the whaleship Essex which inspired Melville's opus.
In 1819, it left Nantucket and went a'whaling. An enraged sperm whale (is there any other kind?) rammed the ship in the South Pacific. The Essex sunk and its crew took to the whale boats and set out for South America. 3,000 miles away.
Nathaniel Philbrick is a brisk, lively, informative writer. His prose is engaging and witty. Unlike Melville's Moby Dick, this is a slim, quick read.
The book starts in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, which was a famous whaling port long before it became the part of the most famous dirty limerick of all time.
Philbrick quickly limns the fascinating history of Nantucket, home to Quakers and whalers and a seafaring tradition. A vicious cycle dominated life in Nantucket: the men were home three months, in between voyages, and were then gone three months, spearing big dumb mammals for their oil. This was a hard life. Not only for the men, who were out getting attacked by sperm whales and cannibalizing each other, but also for the womenfolk, left behind. They were lonely and bored. In good Quaker fashion, many of the women developed opium addictions. Philbrick also notes the fascinating discovery of a six-inch plaster dildo in the chimney of one of the old houses.*
*History is the best, isn't it?
After learning about shore life, we get right into life aboard ship. Philbrick describes what it took to hunt whale (as opposed to hunting manatee, which requires different techniques):
After reading Philbrick's clean descriptions, I think I actually started to understand Moby Dick.
Soon enough, the whale attacks:
The Essex sank, but unlike the Pequod, which disappeared quickly beneath "the great shroud of the sea" that "rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago," the Essex went down slowly. It gave Captain Pollard and his crew time to offload the ship and stock supplies in the whaleboats. They got hardtack, fresh water, a musket, pistols and gun powder.
There were 20 men in three boats. Fearing cannibals (how ironic), the displaced crew of the Essex attempted to row to South America. This was a mistake, which Philbrick places in the lap of Captain George Pollard.
Of course, the great hook in this story, the reason that we really, secretly, actually care this took place, is the cannibalism. At first, the men who died - in a tortuous fashion, dehydrated and starving beneath a blazing sun - were buried at sea. However, with circumstances becoming direr (as though it were possible), lots were drawn. It was young Owen Coffin who was the first to die, "dispatched" by his friend Charles Ramsdell. Odd, for a book this detailed, the scenes of cannibalism are fairly discrete (see Neil Hanson's The Custom of the Sea if you really want to learn about drawing lots and eating your friends).
Eventually, 8 of 20 men survived. Five on an island; three on a boat. Philbrick tells their story well. He is a the rare, serious historian (the book had really good notes; very informative, though not pinpointed) that also knows how to write.
In 1819, it left Nantucket and went a'whaling. An enraged sperm whale (is there any other kind?) rammed the ship in the South Pacific. The Essex sunk and its crew took to the whale boats and set out for South America. 3,000 miles away.
Nathaniel Philbrick is a brisk, lively, informative writer. His prose is engaging and witty. Unlike Melville's Moby Dick, this is a slim, quick read.
The book starts in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, which was a famous whaling port long before it became the part of the most famous dirty limerick of all time.
Nantucket was a town of roof dwellers. Nearly every house, its shingles painted red or left to weather into gray, had a roof-mounted platform known as a walk. While its intended use was to facilitate putting out chimney fires with buckets of sand, the walk was also an excellent place to look out to sea with a spyglass, to search for sails of returning ships.
Philbrick quickly limns the fascinating history of Nantucket, home to Quakers and whalers and a seafaring tradition. A vicious cycle dominated life in Nantucket: the men were home three months, in between voyages, and were then gone three months, spearing big dumb mammals for their oil. This was a hard life. Not only for the men, who were out getting attacked by sperm whales and cannibalizing each other, but also for the womenfolk, left behind. They were lonely and bored. In good Quaker fashion, many of the women developed opium addictions. Philbrick also notes the fascinating discovery of a six-inch plaster dildo in the chimney of one of the old houses.*
*History is the best, isn't it?
After learning about shore life, we get right into life aboard ship. Philbrick describes what it took to hunt whale (as opposed to hunting manatee, which requires different techniques):
[T:]he mate or captain stood at the steering oar in the stern of the whaleboat while the boatsteerer manned the forward-most, or harpooner's oar. Aft of the boatsteerer was the bow oarsman, usually the most experienced foremast hand in the boat. Once the whale had been harpooned, it was his job to lead the crew in pulling in the whale line. Next was the midships oarsman, who worked the longest and heaviest of the lateral oars - up to eighteen feet long and forty-five pounds. Next was the tub oarsman. He managed the two tubs of whale line. It was his job to wet the line with a small bucketlike container, called a piggin, once the whale was harpooned. This wetting prevented the line from burning from the friction as it ran around the loggerhead, an upright post mounted on the stern of the boat. Aft of the tub oarsman was the after oarsman. He was usually the lightest of the crew, and it was his job to make sure the whale line didn't tangle as it was hauled back into the boat.
After reading Philbrick's clean descriptions, I think I actually started to understand Moby Dick.
Soon enough, the whale attacks:
Chase estimated that the whale was traveling at six knots when it struck the Essex the second time and that the ship was traveling at three knots. To bring the Essex to a complete standstill, the whale, whose mass was roughly a third of the ship's, would have to be moving at more than three times the speed of the ship, at least nine knots.
The Essex sank, but unlike the Pequod, which disappeared quickly beneath "the great shroud of the sea" that "rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago," the Essex went down slowly. It gave Captain Pollard and his crew time to offload the ship and stock supplies in the whaleboats. They got hardtack, fresh water, a musket, pistols and gun powder.
There were 20 men in three boats. Fearing cannibals (how ironic), the displaced crew of the Essex attempted to row to South America. This was a mistake, which Philbrick places in the lap of Captain George Pollard.
Pollard's behavior, after both the knockdown and the whale attack, indicates that he lacked the resolve to overrule his two younger and less experienced officers. In his deference to others, Pollard was conducting himself less like a captain and more like the veteran mate described by the Nantucketer William H. Macy: "[H:]e had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once."
Of course, the great hook in this story, the reason that we really, secretly, actually care this took place, is the cannibalism. At first, the men who died - in a tortuous fashion, dehydrated and starving beneath a blazing sun - were buried at sea. However, with circumstances becoming direr (as though it were possible), lots were drawn. It was young Owen Coffin who was the first to die, "dispatched" by his friend Charles Ramsdell. Odd, for a book this detailed, the scenes of cannibalism are fairly discrete (see Neil Hanson's The Custom of the Sea if you really want to learn about drawing lots and eating your friends).
Eventually, 8 of 20 men survived. Five on an island; three on a boat. Philbrick tells their story well. He is a the rare, serious historian (the book had really good notes; very informative, though not pinpointed) that also knows how to write.
December 26, 2020
ما هو الحد الفاصل الذي يفقد عنده الإنسان "بشريته" ويتحوّل إلى وحش؟ وكيف يصل الإنسان إلى هذا الحد رغم كل هذه الإرث من الحضارة والثقافة؟
الإنسان في مواجهة الطبيعة التي لا ترحم.
في أغسطس لعام 1819، انطلق سفينة التحويت "إسّكس" حاملة على متنها 21 رجلًا ومؤنة من الطعام والشراب تكفي طاقمها لسنتين ونصف تقريبًا. كانت هذه واحدة من سفن التحويت الكثيرة التي حوّلت مدينة نانتوكت من جزيرة صغيرة إلى واحدة من أكبر المراكز لهذه الصناعة الخطيرة: صيد الحيتان.
كان ركاب السفينة مستبشرين خيرًا، لديهم أمل في العودة خلال الفترة المحددة إلى منازلهم وفي جعبتهم آلاف من براميل زيت الحوت الثمينة، وقد كانت رحلتهم هادئة وناجحة في بدايتها بالفعل، لكن الأمر لم يستمر.
يجد البحارة أنفسهم فجأة في مواجهة حوت يتصرف بغرابة، حوت هو أضخم ما رأوه في حياتهم حتى الآن، حوت لا ينتظر أن يبدأوا في مطاردته، بل تنقلب الآية ويبدأ، دون أي استفزاز منهم، في مهاجمة السفينة العملاقة.
هذه أرضه، وهو لن يتنازل عنها.
تغرق السفينة، ويهرب البحارة على متن 3 من مراكب التحويت الصغيرة، وتبدأ رحلتهم الطويلة نحو المعاناة.
وسط هذا المحيط الشاسع، حيث لا يابسة، لا طعام، لا شراب، يقضي البحارة عشرات الأيام في عرض المحيط، تلفح الشمس رؤوسهم ويتخلل الماء المالح المتناثر حول المركب جلودهم، تتيبس شفاههم ويفقدون وزنهم ويصبح البقاء حيًا ليوم آخر هو أقصى أمانيهم.
لكن الإنسان لا ييأس، وعندما يصل البشر إلى هذه المرحلة من الجوع والعطش يصبح التفكير بإنسانية رفاهية لا يمتلكونها. تُجرى القرعة، ويتم اختيار أول ضحية: الرجل الذي سيضحي بنفسه من أجل الآخرين، وعلى الآخرين أن يقتلوه ويتغذوا على لحمه ويشربوا دماءه، فلا سبيل آخر للنجاة.
كتاب يحكي قصة الإنسان الضعيف في مواجهة الطبيعة القاسية، يحكي عن حياة البحارة وعاداتهم وتقاليدهم، عن صيد الحيتان وصعوبته، عن الجانب البيولوجي والجغرافي للمحيطات الشاسعة وعن الكائنات التي تسكن تلك البقاع البعيدة التي لم يرها بشر من قبل.
من أعظم قراءات العام بلا شك.
شكرًا لـ محمد جمال على الترجمة الممتازة، وشكرًا لدار كلمات على الاختيار الموفق.
مراجعة مرئية للكتاب:
https://youtu.be/wyE7aduwU2s
#بتاع_الكتب
July 13, 2016
“In the Heart of the Sea” is my first time reading the work of Nathaniel Philbrick. It will not be my last. This is an excellent and engaging text, and like the best nonfiction the reader feels the immediacy and importance of the events described therein.
The book follows the last voyage of the Nantucket whaleship “Essex” and the trek for survival made by the ship’s crew. It is an adventure tale, interspersed with lessons on everything from the behavior of sperm whales, the intricacies of sailing, and the way dehydration affects the human body. Philbrick does an outstanding job digressing from his narrative when he feels a further explanation will benefit his reader. And his instincts are correct.
Besides the main narrative about the sinking of the “Essex”, the island of Nantucket and its inhabitants and culture are a significant aspect of the book. Philbrick clearly demonstrates how you cannot fully examine the one without understanding the other.
In short, “In the Heart of the Sea” is a gripping and informative read in the vein of the best narrative nonfiction. I enjoyed it immensely. Does anything else really matter?
The book follows the last voyage of the Nantucket whaleship “Essex” and the trek for survival made by the ship’s crew. It is an adventure tale, interspersed with lessons on everything from the behavior of sperm whales, the intricacies of sailing, and the way dehydration affects the human body. Philbrick does an outstanding job digressing from his narrative when he feels a further explanation will benefit his reader. And his instincts are correct.
Besides the main narrative about the sinking of the “Essex”, the island of Nantucket and its inhabitants and culture are a significant aspect of the book. Philbrick clearly demonstrates how you cannot fully examine the one without understanding the other.
In short, “In the Heart of the Sea” is a gripping and informative read in the vein of the best narrative nonfiction. I enjoyed it immensely. Does anything else really matter?
June 29, 2023
What a really powerful book. A tragedy told in immense historical detail. From the crew backgrounds to the actual Whale attack. On to the record of the days at sea in boats waiting to die. Graphic account of the cannibalism and heroism. Last chapters focus on an epilogue and consequences. Even the notes pages and bibliographies are fascinating. Every page is rich in story and prose. Really enjoyed.
January 19, 2021
This is a middle-school book but I started reading it at the bookstore and got sucked in. The true story that inspired Moby Dick.
October 29, 2014
IMPORTANT UPDATE: The great reader in the sky has answered my prayers and made a movie based on this story - starring Chris Hemsworth - so I already count one ironclad reason to watch this. The trailer states that the Essex goes beyond the known world, which no it didn't, but I'm also fairly sure that Owen Chase's jaw wasn't nearly as square as Hemsworth's, so I'm willing to allow poetic license. Also, I may root for the whale. The first trailer is here.
----
This was SO gruesome and weirdly gripping. I mean, it's a nonfiction book about whaling - how interesting can it be? Turns out: REALLY INTERESTING. Even before you reach the cannibalism (!), the descriptions of what whaling entails are fascinating. You could not pay me 32 million dollars to throw a harpoon at an enraged whale on the open ocean in a tiny whaleboat, and you certainly could not pay me $32 in 1820s money to do so. Isn't it crazy that the Nantucket whaleships' routine journey was through the Atlantic, around Cape Horn, and into the Pacific Ocean?? In an 1820s-era ship made out of wood, with captains (cough Pollard cough) who couldn't even perform lunar navigation? WTF is this voyage map?
Here are some things you can learn from the tragedy of the whaleship Essex:
· Don't sign on to a whaleship. It doesn't even pay that well anymore, now that we have natural gas and stuff.
· Moby-Dick sounds like an engaging book that I want to read right away. If this is not a desirable side effect for you, I would suggest skipping this book entirely.
· Whalers used to pick up Galapagos tortoises by the dozens, stick them in the holds of their ships, neglect to feed them or give them anything to drink, and wander downstairs whenever they wanted some fresh meat. ???
· Starvation and dehydration are miserable ways to die, right up until the VERY end of your life. The psychological and physiological effects of starvation take months (perhaps years) to heal. And, once you start to eat other people, you're effectively part of a "modern feral society," one in which you begin an amoral fight for survival. Your small group will tear itself apart (heh), and there is no going back.
· The first and second mates of the Essex convinced the captain they shouldn't sail for the Society Islands - where there might be cannibals - but instead back towards the coast of South America, which is more than an additional thousand nautical miles. Philbrick mentions that the Nantucketers are a curious mixture of arrogance, ignorance, and xenophobia. This becomes even more obvious when you find out that they ate all the black sailors first.
· Herman Melville served on a whaling ship with Owen Chase's son, who told him about his father's story and gave him Owen's manuscript to read. Ralph Waldo Emerson mentions in his diary, years before Moby-Dick, the tale of a whaler obsessed with tracking down the whale that ruined his ship. It's possible that could be Owen Chase.
I tore through this book and I'm still unsettled by it. Maritime history has a long, dark past of cannibalism and shipwreck that you don't really think about. That past becomes obvious once you begin thinking about the realities of life - and death - at sea. This book manages to pack a lot into ~250 pages: the rise and fall of Nantucket, the incredible journeys that whaleships routinely sailed, and what it's like to live in desperation. It's all fascinating, and I had no idea that Moby-Dick was rooted in an event that most nineteenth century Americans would have known about.
----
This was SO gruesome and weirdly gripping. I mean, it's a nonfiction book about whaling - how interesting can it be? Turns out: REALLY INTERESTING. Even before you reach the cannibalism (!), the descriptions of what whaling entails are fascinating. You could not pay me 32 million dollars to throw a harpoon at an enraged whale on the open ocean in a tiny whaleboat, and you certainly could not pay me $32 in 1820s money to do so. Isn't it crazy that the Nantucket whaleships' routine journey was through the Atlantic, around Cape Horn, and into the Pacific Ocean?? In an 1820s-era ship made out of wood, with captains (cough Pollard cough) who couldn't even perform lunar navigation? WTF is this voyage map?
Here are some things you can learn from the tragedy of the whaleship Essex:
· Don't sign on to a whaleship. It doesn't even pay that well anymore, now that we have natural gas and stuff.
· Moby-Dick sounds like an engaging book that I want to read right away. If this is not a desirable side effect for you, I would suggest skipping this book entirely.
· Whalers used to pick up Galapagos tortoises by the dozens, stick them in the holds of their ships, neglect to feed them or give them anything to drink, and wander downstairs whenever they wanted some fresh meat. ???
· Starvation and dehydration are miserable ways to die, right up until the VERY end of your life. The psychological and physiological effects of starvation take months (perhaps years) to heal. And, once you start to eat other people, you're effectively part of a "modern feral society," one in which you begin an amoral fight for survival. Your small group will tear itself apart (heh), and there is no going back.
· The first and second mates of the Essex convinced the captain they shouldn't sail for the Society Islands - where there might be cannibals - but instead back towards the coast of South America, which is more than an additional thousand nautical miles. Philbrick mentions that the Nantucketers are a curious mixture of arrogance, ignorance, and xenophobia. This becomes even more obvious when you find out that they ate all the black sailors first.
· Herman Melville served on a whaling ship with Owen Chase's son, who told him about his father's story and gave him Owen's manuscript to read. Ralph Waldo Emerson mentions in his diary, years before Moby-Dick, the tale of a whaler obsessed with tracking down the whale that ruined his ship. It's possible that could be Owen Chase.
I tore through this book and I'm still unsettled by it. Maritime history has a long, dark past of cannibalism and shipwreck that you don't really think about. That past becomes obvious once you begin thinking about the realities of life - and death - at sea. This book manages to pack a lot into ~250 pages: the rise and fall of Nantucket, the incredible journeys that whaleships routinely sailed, and what it's like to live in desperation. It's all fascinating, and I had no idea that Moby-Dick was rooted in an event that most nineteenth century Americans would have known about.
May 19, 2017
Buddy-read with Jeff-fah-fah and Holly! Guys, it was awesome!
For anyone not knowing: this is a true story. The Essex, a ship full of whalers, ventures into the Pacific to kill a lot of animals, usually in a very horrific way, and the men get what they've got coming when a male sperm whale attacks and sinks the ship.
The story even inspired Herman Melville, the famous writer of Moby Dick, who met the son of Owen Chase (the first mate on the Essex).
This book presents a detailed account of the life of a whaler from Nantucket, the culture on the island and how it changed throughout the years, the life on board of a whaleship, the gruesome practice of killing not just whales but also other animals such as tortoises, and what happened after the attack of the sperm whale that sank the Essex.
What I liked very much was that the author went to great lengths to collect all the available accounts and combined them. The main source was cabin boy Thomas Nickerson's account, but Owen Chase was quoted often as well and many other details were included after the accounts of Captain Pollard and the other survivors in order to give, as best as possible so many years later, a 360° view on what happened. The author even amended the book with notes on each chapter.
Interesting were also the scientific details the author included, like the psychology of survival (important to showcase the bad effects of the captain's inactions), the biological effects of starvation and dehydration (by even giving an account of some experiments from 1945) as well as the history of Nantucket.
Where I disagree with the author is that the men were victims of circumstance and made the best of it. Because the truth is that they deserved every stinking horrific bit of this voyage. Yes, they had to eat their dead companions (even killing one actively to eat him), but after reading of how they killed the whales, how they starved tortoises to death and were personally responsible for the eradication of an entire tortoise species on a Galápagos islands, I just couldn't feel sorry for them.
This is the route the three little whaleboats took after the wahleship sank
and despite hating the people and actually enjoying their suffering, it is impressive how much and how long they survived. Then again, it would have been so much easier if they hadn't been so stupid (yes, a lot of the horrible things that happened to the crew could have been avoided).
P.S.: The irony of the movie is that while the focus of this book is Nickerson's narration and the movie is supposed to be the adaptation of this book, the focus of the movie is Chase's account (naturally, painting himself in a very favourable light).
P.P.S.: I REALLY disliked Owen Chase. I mean, apart from everything related to his character at the beginning of the ship's voyage and the way he put himself in a favourable light when writing down his account of the events, the way he got married then left then lost his wife then re-married immediately then left again then lost this wife too then remarried immediately again (this was repeated a couple of times) ... even if it was his way of coping with what had happened, this was despicable. And he fared much better than Pollard (at least career-wise)!
Anyway, a lively and informative narration of a true event that inspired a lot of people, meticulously researched and written in a very nice way.
For anyone not knowing: this is a true story. The Essex, a ship full of whalers, ventures into the Pacific to kill a lot of animals, usually in a very horrific way, and the men get what they've got coming when a male sperm whale attacks and sinks the ship.
The story even inspired Herman Melville, the famous writer of Moby Dick, who met the son of Owen Chase (the first mate on the Essex).
This book presents a detailed account of the life of a whaler from Nantucket, the culture on the island and how it changed throughout the years, the life on board of a whaleship, the gruesome practice of killing not just whales but also other animals such as tortoises, and what happened after the attack of the sperm whale that sank the Essex.
What I liked very much was that the author went to great lengths to collect all the available accounts and combined them. The main source was cabin boy Thomas Nickerson's account, but Owen Chase was quoted often as well and many other details were included after the accounts of Captain Pollard and the other survivors in order to give, as best as possible so many years later, a 360° view on what happened. The author even amended the book with notes on each chapter.
Interesting were also the scientific details the author included, like the psychology of survival (important to showcase the bad effects of the captain's inactions), the biological effects of starvation and dehydration (by even giving an account of some experiments from 1945) as well as the history of Nantucket.
Where I disagree with the author is that the men were victims of circumstance and made the best of it. Because the truth is that they deserved every stinking horrific bit of this voyage. Yes, they had to eat their dead companions (even killing one actively to eat him), but after reading of how they killed the whales, how they starved tortoises to death and were personally responsible for the eradication of an entire tortoise species on a Galápagos islands, I just couldn't feel sorry for them.
This is the route the three little whaleboats took after the wahleship sank
and despite hating the people and actually enjoying their suffering, it is impressive how much and how long they survived. Then again, it would have been so much easier if they hadn't been so stupid (yes, a lot of the horrible things that happened to the crew could have been avoided).
P.S.: The irony of the movie is that while the focus of this book is Nickerson's narration and the movie is supposed to be the adaptation of this book, the focus of the movie is Chase's account (naturally, painting himself in a very favourable light).
P.P.S.: I REALLY disliked Owen Chase. I mean, apart from everything related to his character at the beginning of the ship's voyage and the way he put himself in a favourable light when writing down his account of the events, the way he got married then left then lost his wife then re-married immediately then left again then lost this wife too then remarried immediately again (this was repeated a couple of times) ... even if it was his way of coping with what had happened, this was despicable. And he fared much better than Pollard (at least career-wise)!
Anyway, a lively and informative narration of a true event that inspired a lot of people, meticulously researched and written in a very nice way.
May 21, 2021
The whaleship Essex, 15 months into an expected journey of three years, is head-butted and sunk by a sperm whale, an unprecedented and bizarre attack that inspired Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick." Left at a point in the Pacific that could not be further from land, the twenty crewmembers board three leaky whaleboats with limited food and freshwater. While south Pacific islands to west are more easily reached via the prevailing winds, Captain George Pollard yields to the officers' fears of cannibalistic natives and makes the ill fated decision to tack easterly for the west coast of South America. Some ninety days of searing sun and pounding gales later, the battered, ulcerated, and skeletal survivors miraculously reach a precarious safety.
There is a natural fascination with tales of survival against incredible odds - an especially macabre fascination when survival is dependant on using fellow your travelers for sustenance. Author Philbrick plays this hand well, resisting sensationalism and treating a sensitive and highly emotional topic with dignity and empathy for both the survivors as well as their victims. In prose that is sparse and authoritative, Philbrick spices his story with topics as far ranging as sperm whale anatomy and the physiology and psychology of starvation and dehydration. He succeeds in capturing that rare combination of historical fact that is educational while at the same time as riveting as the best pop thriller. "In the Heart of the Sea" is a brutal and bloody tutorial of the industry that was the backbone of the US economy, and the risks and sacrifices made by the men who farmed the floating oil fields of the oceans - and of the women they left behind. In short, a gripping slice of American history well researched and compassionately told - a worthy recipient of a National Book Award that shouldn't be missed.
There is a natural fascination with tales of survival against incredible odds - an especially macabre fascination when survival is dependant on using fellow your travelers for sustenance. Author Philbrick plays this hand well, resisting sensationalism and treating a sensitive and highly emotional topic with dignity and empathy for both the survivors as well as their victims. In prose that is sparse and authoritative, Philbrick spices his story with topics as far ranging as sperm whale anatomy and the physiology and psychology of starvation and dehydration. He succeeds in capturing that rare combination of historical fact that is educational while at the same time as riveting as the best pop thriller. "In the Heart of the Sea" is a brutal and bloody tutorial of the industry that was the backbone of the US economy, and the risks and sacrifices made by the men who farmed the floating oil fields of the oceans - and of the women they left behind. In short, a gripping slice of American history well researched and compassionately told - a worthy recipient of a National Book Award that shouldn't be missed.
February 16, 2016
A gruesome tale of death and survival at sea told with suspense and drama to keep us aboard. Philbrick skillfully delivers the graphic details without overwhelming the reader. As in Mayflower he embellishes the story with fascinating insights and background. He profiles Nantucket’s boom and bust history. In the early 19th century Nantucket was a blackened and smelly place despoiled by the whale oil industry. This was the height of its whaling days when Nantucket whale ships were crisscrossing the Atlantic on their way to the Pacific where whales were still abundant. Most of the men were at sea for these two to three year-long whaling trips leaving behind an unusual female dominated society. We see the effects on courtship, marriage and everyday life as the wives attempt to raise their families unsure if their husbands will return in one piece if at all.
The practices of the 19th century whaling industry and the lives of the men who tried to make a living from it are starkly detailed. As Philbrick describes the voyage of the Essex he also sprinkles in interesting tidbits about the whales. But the whale that sinks the Essex acts unlike any other the men have encountered. The sailors looking on from their whaleboats are incredulous as a whale attacks and sinks their ship. This is where the real story begins. Thousands of miles from land the men of the Essex must come together, make a plan and make their way. It is not pretty. With graphic detail Philbrick describes the physical and psychological changes starving men undergo. We learn about judgement under pressure, when it’s best to take charge and when it’s best to listen and support others. For context Philbrick fills us in on other disasters where starvation drove men to the brink. To finish Philbrick tells us how the ordeal changed the survivors’ lives. A great book for the adventure lover and the history buff and for those who would like to see the whale win one.
The practices of the 19th century whaling industry and the lives of the men who tried to make a living from it are starkly detailed. As Philbrick describes the voyage of the Essex he also sprinkles in interesting tidbits about the whales. But the whale that sinks the Essex acts unlike any other the men have encountered. The sailors looking on from their whaleboats are incredulous as a whale attacks and sinks their ship. This is where the real story begins. Thousands of miles from land the men of the Essex must come together, make a plan and make their way. It is not pretty. With graphic detail Philbrick describes the physical and psychological changes starving men undergo. We learn about judgement under pressure, when it’s best to take charge and when it’s best to listen and support others. For context Philbrick fills us in on other disasters where starvation drove men to the brink. To finish Philbrick tells us how the ordeal changed the survivors’ lives. A great book for the adventure lover and the history buff and for those who would like to see the whale win one.
September 27, 2017
If I had to come up with a torturous way to die, I would immediately start talking about this book. Holy mackerel, how much tragedy can one group of people endure? This story was an atmospheric and truly terrifying account of an ordeal that defies comprehension. I have had a visceral reaction throughout this one. It's a shock to the system. My muscles are cramped from tension, my heart is pounding, and I am overcome with guilt (and gratitude) for every glass of water I drink. A wonderful historic account of the whaling industry, the harsh life of a whale man, and life on island...and of course, the whale attack and the unforgiving fight for survival. A harrowing tale. God Bless their souls. 4 stars
January 20, 2024
En el corazón del Mar
Libro que narra la tragedia de un barco ballenero a principios del siglo XIX.
En la Isla de Nantucket, en la costa este de Estados Unidos existía el puerto ballenero más importante de la época con más de setenta barcos dedicados a la caza del cachalote. La isla estaba camino de convertirse en una de las poblaciones más ricas del país. Actualmente pertenece al estado de Massachusetts.
En la sinopsis del libro ya cuenta lo que ocurrió, es decir, no deja nada a la sorpresa. Y es que el barco Essex partió del puerto de Nantucket en 1819 en busca de ballenas por todo el Atlántico y luego el Pacífico hasta encontrarse con la horma de su zapato, un cachalote gigante.
El autor del libro está un poco ligado a Nantucket, vive ahí, y de esta historia su tío ya había escrito algo sobre el Essex. Esto quiere decir que no se limita a contar las consecuencias del naufragio, se adentra en la vida de la isla y el auge y caída de su población.
El relato del naufragio está basado en los diarios de los supervivientes (¡ya hay que tener ganas de escribir en esas condiciones!) Y los va comparando con otras situaciones límite como, por ejemplo, el capitán del Bounty dejado a la deriva, la gesta de Shackelton en la Antártida u otras similares.
La narración tiene momentos de sufrimiento tremendos según dejaron escrito los protagonistas, que no querían acabar en una isla llena de caníbales.
El autor no sólo cuenta la tragedia sino lo que ocurría en el mundo en ese momento, las consecuencias y el futuro de los náufragos más adelante.
Un libro con altibajos, el "corazón" de la narración es magnífica, no puedes soltarlo, pero hay muchas páginas con poco interés.
Es necesario apuntar que esta historia real fue la que inspiró a Herman Melville su novela Moby Dick. Quedó impresionado del relato que escribió uno de los oficiales supervivientes, Owen Chase.
Incluso Edgar Allan Poe utilizó en un libro suyo algunos aspectos morbosos del libro de Chase.
Un libro idóneo para los que le atraen las historias reales, en este caso una historia de supervivencia y de los límites del ser humano.
Hay película de 2015 de Ron Howard con Chris Hemsworth y Cilliam Murphy entre otros. 6,2/10 en filmaffinity.
Libro que narra la tragedia de un barco ballenero a principios del siglo XIX.
En la Isla de Nantucket, en la costa este de Estados Unidos existía el puerto ballenero más importante de la época con más de setenta barcos dedicados a la caza del cachalote. La isla estaba camino de convertirse en una de las poblaciones más ricas del país. Actualmente pertenece al estado de Massachusetts.
En la sinopsis del libro ya cuenta lo que ocurrió, es decir, no deja nada a la sorpresa. Y es que el barco Essex partió del puerto de Nantucket en 1819 en busca de ballenas por todo el Atlántico y luego el Pacífico hasta encontrarse con la horma de su zapato, un cachalote gigante.
El autor del libro está un poco ligado a Nantucket, vive ahí, y de esta historia su tío ya había escrito algo sobre el Essex. Esto quiere decir que no se limita a contar las consecuencias del naufragio, se adentra en la vida de la isla y el auge y caída de su población.
El relato del naufragio está basado en los diarios de los supervivientes (¡ya hay que tener ganas de escribir en esas condiciones!) Y los va comparando con otras situaciones límite como, por ejemplo, el capitán del Bounty dejado a la deriva, la gesta de Shackelton en la Antártida u otras similares.
La narración tiene momentos de sufrimiento tremendos según dejaron escrito los protagonistas, que no querían acabar en una isla llena de caníbales.
El autor no sólo cuenta la tragedia sino lo que ocurría en el mundo en ese momento, las consecuencias y el futuro de los náufragos más adelante.
Un libro con altibajos, el "corazón" de la narración es magnífica, no puedes soltarlo, pero hay muchas páginas con poco interés.
Es necesario apuntar que esta historia real fue la que inspiró a Herman Melville su novela Moby Dick. Quedó impresionado del relato que escribió uno de los oficiales supervivientes, Owen Chase.
Incluso Edgar Allan Poe utilizó en un libro suyo algunos aspectos morbosos del libro de Chase.
Un libro idóneo para los que le atraen las historias reales, en este caso una historia de supervivencia y de los límites del ser humano.
Hay película de 2015 de Ron Howard con Chris Hemsworth y Cilliam Murphy entre otros. 6,2/10 en filmaffinity.
September 29, 2020
" أدركتُ الآن كيف كانتْ رؤية البشر الأوائل الميثولوجيّة للكوارث حتميّةً، و كيف يبد�� سلوكنا الحديث الذي يُعلِّمه لنا العلم مُصطَنعًا و مخالفًِا لأُسس إدراكنا التلقائيّ."
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حين يغترّ الإنسان بنفسه و يزهو بسلطة أفعاله على الأرض، لا أرى سوى التناسي المُتَعمَّد من قِبله للجانب الآخر الذي جعل الملائكة تسأل خالقها- عزَّ و جلَّ- كيف يستخلف في هذا الكون الفسيح من يسفك الدماء؟ و إنْ كان سفكُ الدماء في ذلك التساؤل من الممكن إحالته إلى آثام بني آدم كافّةً، إلا أنّي في هذا السياق أقف عند الدلالة الفعليَّة لسفك الدماء، لفعل القتل حين يرتكبه الإنسان، فعند ارتكاب مثل هذا الفعل، يغدو الإنسان وحشًا مُغتصِبًا لحق ذلك المقتول في أن يحظى بفرصة الحياة، و لكن، ماذا سيكون موقفي حين تكون حياة هذا الشخص الآخر ثمنًا لاحتفاظي بحياتي؟ و ما ستكون قيمة هذه الفقرة برمتِّها؟ إنّ هذا الكتاب قد وضعني في مواجهة قاسية أمام جانبي الآخر، كما فعلت مأساة الحوّاتة إسكس مع طاقمها في خضم أمواج المحيط الهادئ.
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قبل الشروع في هذا الكتاب، لم تقابلني سابقًا مصطلحات علوم التحويت، بل لم أكن قد اهتممتُ قطُّ بالتاريخ البحري للسفن التجارية، أو المدنية، فقط طالعتُ القليل من المعلومات المتناثرة عن أجهزة الدفاع البحرية العسكرية حين تملّكني الفضول تجاه الحربين العالميتيْن، لذلك فقد شعرتُ بموجة هائلة من المعلومات الصادمة عن هذا التاريخ الثري لسفن التحويت القتالية، فصيدُ الحيتان كان منذ القدم من أجل لحومها وزيوتها الذي كان يُستخدم لإضاءة القناديل والفوانيس، وكانت المجتمعات الساحلية تقوم بصيد الحيتان منذ 3000 سنة قبل الميلاد. وفي القرن السابع عشر اندمج تصنيع الحيتان مع الأساطيل المنظمة لصيدها، لتصبح صناعة تنافسية في القرنين الثامن عشر والتاسع عشر، ثم استخدمت السفن المدمجة مع المصانع كي تخدم مفهوم حصد الحيتان في النصف الأول من القرن العشرين.
ومع تقدم التقنيات وارتفاع الطلب، زاد الصيد عن مخزون البحر من الحيتان. وفي نهاية العقد الثالث من القرن التاسع عشر قُتِلَ أكثر من 50000 حوت سنويًّا، ومع توسط القرن لم يكن المخزون قادرًا على التجدد.
لتبدأ جريمةٌ أكبر، صيدُ الحيتان العنبرية، و بعد انتشار تلك الصناعة على المدار العالمي بأكمله في القرن التاسع العاشر، تتمركز في جزيرة نانتوكيت الأمريكية، و هي جزيرة تقع على مسافة 48 كيلومتراً جنوب كيب كود في ولاية ماساتشوستس الأمريكية. تُشكِّل مع جزيرتي توكيرنوك ومسكيجيت الصَّغيرتين بلدة نانتوكيت، والتي تُمثِّل بدورها نفس حدود مقاطعة نانتوكيت الإدارية. اشتقَّ اسم البلدة من أسماء ألغوكوانيَّة شبيهةٍ أُطلقت على الجزيرة في القدم، قد يكون معناها "البلاد/الجزيرة البعيدة جداً".
إنَّ الوثائق التي تُشيرُ إلى صيد حيتان العنبر خلال العقود القليلة الأولى (1709-عقد 1730) من بداية هذه التجارة قليلةٌ ونادرة، مما يُفيد بأنَّ صيدها لم يكن مألوفًا بعد. عوضًا كانت المراكب الشراعيَّة تتركَّز في المياه الضحلة لجزيرة نانتوكيت حيث تصطاد الحيتان الصائبة، أو تتجه إلى مضيق دايڤيس ��صيد الحيتان مقوَّسة الرأس. بحلول عقد الأربعينيَّات من القرن الثامن عشر، ومع ابتكار الشموع العنبريَّة (قُبيل عام 1743)، أخذت سُفن الصيد الأمريكيَّة تُركّز على صيد حيتان العنبر. تنص مُذكرات بنيامين بانگز (1721–1769) أنَّه اكتشف ثلاثة مراكب شراعيَّة أخرى إلى جانب مركبه الشراعي تُلاحق وتصطاد حيتان العنبر قبالة شاطئ كارولينا الشماليَّة في أواخر شهر مايو من عام 1743. كما يقول أنَّه بعد عودته إلى نانتوكيت في صيف سنة 1744 اكتشف أنَّ الصيَّادين "أحضروا 45 عنبريَّة إلى هُناك في ذات اليوم"، مما يدل على أنَّ صيد الحيتان من قِبل الصيَّادين الأمريكيّين كان قد أصبح في أوجه.
سَرعان ما انتشر صيد حيتان العنبر من الساحل الشرقي للمُستعمرات الأمريكيَّة إلى منطقة تيَّار الخليج، ثمَّ منطقة المُنحدرات الكُبرى، فأفريقيا الغربيَّة (1763)، وجزر الآزور (1765)، وجنوب المحيط الأطلسي (عقد 1770). خلال الفترة المُمتدة بين عاميّ 1770 و1775، كانت مرافئ مُستعمرات ماساتشوستس، ونيويورك، وكونيتيكت، ورود آيلاند، تُصدِّرُ 45,000 برميل من زيوت العنبر سنويًّا، مُقابل 8,500 برميل من زيوت الحيتا��. خلال هذا العقد، أخذ البريطانيّون يتحوَّلون إلى صيد حيتان العنبر، مُستخدمين في ذلك طواقم بحريَّة أمريكيَّة كاملة.وبحلول العقد التالي كان الفرنسيّون قد دخلوا هذه التجارة مُستخدمين البحَّارة الأمريكيَّن كذلك.ارتفعت نسبة صيد حيتان العنبر حتى أواسط القرن التاسع عشر، إذ أنَّ الزيت العنبري كان مطلوبًا بشدَّة للإنارة العموميَّة (إنارة أبراج المنارات مثلًا، حيث استمرَّ يُستخدم في الولايات المُتحدة حتى عام 1862 عندما استُبدل بشحم الخنزير، الذي استُبدل بدوره بالنفط)، ولتشحيم الآلات (مثل تلك المُستخدمة في حلج القطن) التي ظهرت خلال الثورة الصناعيَّة. تراجعت نسبة صيد حيتان العنبر خلال النصف الثاني من القرن التاسع عشر، بعد أن انتشر استعمال النفط، وقد أدّى هذا بشكلٍ أو بآخر إلى حماية الحيتان من المزيد من الاستغلال التجاري وسمح لجمهراتها أن تنتعش بعض الشيء. كان صيد حيتان العنبر قد ابتدأ على نحوٍ ضيِّق خلال القرن الثامن عشر، فكانت بضعة مراكب شراعيَّة تُبحر حاملةً معها مركبٌ واحد أو اثنين مُخصصين للصيد، ومع مرور الوقت أخذ حجم أساطيل الصيد يزداد شيئًا فشيئًا، وأُدخلت أحدث السُفن في المصلحة. وفي أواخر القرن الثامن عشر وأوائل التاسع عشر ازداد عدد الأساطيل بشكلٍ ملحوظ وانتشرت في كافَّة البحار والمُحيطات، فكانت تصيدُ حيتان العنبر في المحيط الهادئ، والمحيط الهندي، وسواحل اليابان وشبه الجزيرة العربيَّة وأستراليا ونيوزيلندا.
ليأتي دورُ كاتبنا، ساردًا بلغة شجيّةٍ لا تعوزها الحيادية العلمية و التأريخ العلمي المنضبط لكثير من الوقائع التي تم إغفالها في روايات الناجين، قصة الحوّاتة إسكس التي انطلقت في رحلتها الموافق الخميس الثاني عشر من أغسطس عام ١٨١٢، يقودها القبطان جورج بولارد الابن، الضابط الأول أوين تشايس، الضابط الثاني ماثيو جوي، و ثلاثة مُوجّهو قوارب، ثم المضيف، و ثلاثة عشر بحّارًا ثم صبي المقصورة: توماس نيكرسون، إحدى و عشرون فردًا خرجوا في ذلك اليوم مُيّممين شطرهم إزاء ملاقاة حتف معظمهم، و النجاة بأعجوبة لقليلٍ منهم، و تتحول تلك المأساة إلى مصدر إلهام لهيرمين ميلڤيل ليخطَّ لنا أعجوبته الخالدة، موبي دِك، و يبدو أن ميلڤل قد صنع معالجةً دراميةً بعد قرائته لمذكرات الضابط الأول تشايس ثم انخراطه في أجواء نفس الجزيرة، مما يجعلني حين أصبو إلى الحقيقة الفعلية لوقائع تلك الكارثة، دون العوالق الروائية التي نعلمها جميعًا، سأتحدث عن جهود ناثانيل فيلبريك، الذي لم يتوانَ عن تناول جوانب الرحلة العلمية و الإنسانية.
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أن يا ربّ من خلقت الحوت العجيب
ذلك الوحش العظيم ذو الحجم الرهيب
عارم الرأس، هائل الجسد، كبير الذيل
أما قوّته، فلا يتخيلها إنسان
لكنّك، أيها الرب الخالد، من حكمت علينا
نحن البشر الضعاف الفانون، بالانخراط
(بأنفسنا، بأزواجنا، و بأبنائنا الذين نرعى)
مع هذا الوحش المخيف في معارك حامية
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(الضابط الأول أوين تشايس)
منذ حواليْ عاميْن، وقع بين يديْ كتاب لداڤيد سولار عن اليوم الأخير لأدولف هتلر، مُتّخِذًا من موضوعه عنوانًا له، توقّعتُ أن تكون رواية، و لكنّي فُوجئتُ بالبناء الغريب للأحداث الذي ساق إلى عقلي معلومات تاريحية عسكرية أكاديمية، و في نفس الوقت لم أشعر بالملل على الإطلاق، و لم أعرف يومها كيفية تصنيف ذلك العمل، أهو رواية؟ أم كتاب؟ بالتأكيد ليس رواية، لأنه يخلو من الحوار و الحبكة و الدراما و مقومات الرواية البديهية، و لكن كيف؟ فالتشويق قد فرض نفسه في كل صفحة! أهو كتاب؟ كتاب تاريخي يحكي واقعةً هامة؟ تحيّرتُ و لكنّي تمنيّتُ أن يقع بين يديّ كتابٌ مشابه لذلك الأسلوب الغريب في عرض واقعة تاريخية، فتارةً يتملكك ذلك الفضول الروائي لإكمال الحكاية بمتعة، و تارةً تشعر باكتفاء دسم بالمعلومات الدقيقة التي ساقها الكاتب باحترافية باحث علمي مُخضرَم، و الكتاب الذي أتحدث عنه اليوم لم يكن سوى ذلك النوع الماتع، الدقيق، الذي يسرُد لك مأساةً حقيقية، كادت تُودي بحيوات جميع الطاقم لولا العناية الآلهية التي أنقذت ثمانية رجال، بعد شهرين كابوسيين في صحراء المحيط الهادئ الذي لم يكن تمّ اكتشافه بالكامل آنذاك.
أربعة عشر فصلًا بدأهم الكاتب بالتاريخ المُفصَّل للجزيرة، عارضًا لك الجوانب السياسية و التاريخية و الاقتصادية التي هيَّأت العوامل الضرورية لقيام تلك الصناعة، ثم يحكي التمهيدات ��لتي سابقت انطلاق سفينة الإسكس، لتبدأ الرحلة، لمدة عام كامل، لا شيء خارق، حدوث بعض العواصف و اصطياد حيتان عنبرية و بعض المواقف العابرة بين الطاقم، لتبدأ المأساة في خريف عام ١٨٢٠، و يضرب حوت ذكر طوله لا يقل عن خمسة و ثمانين قدمًا السفينة، يلجأ الرجال إلى مراكب التحويت، هائمين بين عباب المحيط المرعب، ثم تلاطمهم الرياح و الأمطار بوحشية، طيلة تلك الرحلة الطويلة المُرعبة، يضع لك الكاتب التعليقات العلمية و التوثيقات التاريخية لكثير من القضايا المطروحة، و أهمها، الكانيبالية، ذلك المصطلح الثقيل المخيف، لا مندوحة من اللجوء إليه في مثل هذا الظرف...و ما الكانيبالية؟
(توماس.نيكرسون.فتى المقصورة)
الترجمة الدقيقة تعني أن يأكل الإنسان ذاته، و لكن في أحداث تلك الرواية، عمّمها الكاتب ليعني بها أكل لحوم البشر بشكل عام مثلما قصد كريستوفر كولومبوس حين تحدث عن قبائل الكاريب الهندية، أظن أن تلك النقطة من أهم النقاط في المأساة و في تناول الكاتب نفسه، فهي تطرح ذلك الصراع، التفكير في أولوية الحفاظ على حياتنا في خضم ظروف بدائية كابوسية أم في أولوية الاحتفاظ بإنسانيتنا؟ و قد جسّد الكاتب بدقة تلك الأزمة، حين وصف في مشاهد متوازية التاريخ الديني و الأنثروبولجي، ثم الشعور بالأزمة و التناقض بين الروايات حين كان أول المأكولين، البحارة السود، استعرض الكاتب إحداثيات تلك الواقعة بشكل كامل، عاقدًا مقارنة خفيّةً بين جانبين في كل نفس بشرية، و الجواب قد تم تقريره و لكن الإنسان يتألم و يحزن حين يرى مآله، و في حالة حكايتنا، فقد رأى الضباط أنفسَهم يتحولون إلى نفس الطبيعة الوحشية التي أنكروها على ضحاياهم من الحيتان.
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"من المؤلم مشاهدة موت أصغر مخلوقات الرب، لكن الألم يكون أعظم بكثير عند مشاهدة موت كائن هائل كان يفيض بالحياة مثل الحوت! عندما رأيتُ أضخم الكائنات كلها ينزف و يرتعش و يموت، ضحيةً لمكر الإنسان، تضاربتْ مشاعري و تقلّبتْ."
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وقف الكاتب أيضًا عند التصوُّر الديني لطاقم السفينة، واضعًا بعين الاعتبار أن أغلبهم ينتمون إلى فكر مسيحي كويكري يؤمن بالجانب الروحي الداخلي حين يتصل المؤمن بيسوع و تصوره اللاهوتي بشكل عام، و لكن حين تحدث عن المناجيات الداخلية لتشايس و كفاحه في بداية المأساة كي يثبت قدرته و علمه البشري و أنهما الاعتماد الأول للنجاة، ثم ذلك التحول الصارخ، حين آمن أن النجاة لن تكون إلا على أيدي العناية الآلهية مُمَّثلةً في سفينة عابرة أو جزيرة مأهولة، فهمتُ حينها تلك الجملة التي قالها الكاتب على لسان أحد الناجين:
" ساعد ذلك المشهد في تغيير حياته. فمنذ ذلك اليوم و صاعدًا سيتجه إلى الربّ، كتب لاحقًا: " وجدتُ أن الدين ليس فقط مفيدًا، بل ذا ضرورة قُصوى في تمكيني من تحمُّل هذه الاختبارات القاسية."
"ما أحمق و أجهل المرء الجبان الذي لم يتمرّسْ بالأسفار و هو يُجرِّب أن يتصوّر هذا الحوت العجيب تصوُّرًا شاملًا صحيحًا بالاستغراق في تأمل هيكله العظميّ الميت المهزول...كلا، لا يدرك أحدٌ الحوت و هو في كامل لبوسه إدراكًا صحيحًا حيًّا إلّا و هو في قلب الخطر الحيّ، إلا و هو دون خطريْ شطيرتيه الغاضبتين، إلا و هو على أثباج البحر العميق المترامي." لكن، مثلما أدرك الناجون من الإس��س، بعد بلوغ النهاية، و بعد استهلاك كل الأمل و الشغف و القوة، لا يبقى إلا العظام."بعض الكتب تجذبني أغلفتها و رقة إخراجها، مثل الطبعات العتيقة المميزة لمكتبة مصر في أعمال نجيب محفوظ و يوسف السباعي و غيرهم في تلك الحقبة آنذاك، و في حديثنا الآن لا يمكنني التغافل عن الاختيار المناسب للغلاف، و تناسق الألوان مع محتوى الكتاب، ثم الرسومات التخطيطية الموضحة التي أرفقتُ بعضَها في مراجعتي، فقد أبانتْ لي الكثير من التفاصيل الخاصة بتركيب السفينة، و هو أمرٌ جوهري في فهم إحداثيات القضية المحورية للأحداث، كما أن وضع أسماء الطاقم في بداية الكتاب في صفحة مستقلة، ساعدني على تخيل و تنسيق المهام الخاصة بكل شخصية، تفاصيل كثيرة اهتمت بها الدار كانت مُعينةً للتمتع بالكتاب إجمالًا
تمت.
٢٤ سبتمبر ٢٠٢٠
October 12, 2016
Once I was well into this non-fiction record, I could not put it down.
The detail and research! The maps, the retained evidence and not the least is the history and onus of Nantucket.
Nathaniel Philbrick not only relates all minutia of this chronological multi-year saga of the Essex, but also sets that in the proper setting- like a gem in an elaborate piece of jewelry.
The Quaker religion, worldview and how that worked into the patterns of work for whaling! The language itself surrounding itself with new words in most particular aspect for action or object for this complex martial occupation. This book taught me much more about the terms for motions, parts of the vessel, hierarchy toward purposes and context for ships than any other I have read. And demonstrates them in graphics, lists, maps, photos. Apart from the voyage maps.
It's a lifestyle that meant the men were home for 3 months out of 3 years gone. And that many women were happy about the fact, as well.
Much of this book if put into a fiction piece would be deemed strongly unbelievable. That it has happened and has such documentation. And also that Philbrick has here applied this to current scientific criteria, not only about whale species; of sperm, right, blue- but also about homo sapiens original expansions to and within the Pacific. Awesome book. Not only included to depth are the sections upon the discourse of, about and within the sea, but on the land at home, as well. For us "coof".
This book will not condemn with judgment- it will relate the factual so you yourself can have "eyes". And most of what you see will not be clean nor will it be pleasant. Every process is completely in each partial piece of progression described. Down to the emotional when it occurs. And the noise, and the smells, and the sounds. Sometimes accompanied by insanity.
The process of "trying out" on the deck flats! You aren't going to get this in Moby Dick. This is far superior. Gut-wrenching and macabre, not just a couple of times either.
Each of the 20 men are given biography before its over. Not forgetting any of the "after" in this investigation for the roles the survivors played in later years.
It is appalling. And it also is daunting to conceive how these men went farther and farther and farther for the liquid "gold". To the point where they had no idea of the islands or lands around them at all. Resulting in not having the facts, but believing the hype- and thus going 3000 plus miles out of their way for "help".
What a work is man.
The detail and research! The maps, the retained evidence and not the least is the history and onus of Nantucket.
Nathaniel Philbrick not only relates all minutia of this chronological multi-year saga of the Essex, but also sets that in the proper setting- like a gem in an elaborate piece of jewelry.
The Quaker religion, worldview and how that worked into the patterns of work for whaling! The language itself surrounding itself with new words in most particular aspect for action or object for this complex martial occupation. This book taught me much more about the terms for motions, parts of the vessel, hierarchy toward purposes and context for ships than any other I have read. And demonstrates them in graphics, lists, maps, photos. Apart from the voyage maps.
It's a lifestyle that meant the men were home for 3 months out of 3 years gone. And that many women were happy about the fact, as well.
Much of this book if put into a fiction piece would be deemed strongly unbelievable. That it has happened and has such documentation. And also that Philbrick has here applied this to current scientific criteria, not only about whale species; of sperm, right, blue- but also about homo sapiens original expansions to and within the Pacific. Awesome book. Not only included to depth are the sections upon the discourse of, about and within the sea, but on the land at home, as well. For us "coof".
This book will not condemn with judgment- it will relate the factual so you yourself can have "eyes". And most of what you see will not be clean nor will it be pleasant. Every process is completely in each partial piece of progression described. Down to the emotional when it occurs. And the noise, and the smells, and the sounds. Sometimes accompanied by insanity.
The process of "trying out" on the deck flats! You aren't going to get this in Moby Dick. This is far superior. Gut-wrenching and macabre, not just a couple of times either.
Each of the 20 men are given biography before its over. Not forgetting any of the "after" in this investigation for the roles the survivors played in later years.
It is appalling. And it also is daunting to conceive how these men went farther and farther and farther for the liquid "gold". To the point where they had no idea of the islands or lands around them at all. Resulting in not having the facts, but believing the hype- and thus going 3000 plus miles out of their way for "help".
What a work is man.
January 12, 2020
I was worried when I started this book. I almost didn't start this book. The reason I almost didn't read the book wasn't because it was too new for me to read, I mean, my word the author is still alive. I think so anyway. Whenever I find a book on my shelves that has been written anytime since I've been alive - 1961 - I'm amazed I own such a thing, but it does happen. Not every book in this house is a classic, or just plain old, but of the 900 or so that are in this house, only about 50 have been written since 1961, or since 1951 for that matter. But here I am holding In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, bought for me by someone who saw the Penguin on the side of the book, figured I'd like it and brought it home.
But the thing that had me worried wasn't that, it was the words:
In his riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, Nathaniel Philbrick returns an epic tale - the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick
That's enough, it was those words Moby-Dick that did it. I hated that book, as far as I can tell one of the only people who haven't loved good old Moby-Dick, but I didn't love it. And why didn't I like that good old whale book? Because while I suppose the story, you know the part where they are sailing around the ocean looking for whales, was interesting enough, I'm assuming it was interesting, my mind had nearly shut down from all the other things going on by then. The other things are the non-fictional descriptions of the whaling industry, we have various species of whales, there are a lot of them, I could name them now, but I don't want to, would you like to know the anatomy of the whale? I could tell you, I won't. I learned an awful lot about rope I never needed to know. The descriptions of whaling lines, whale paintings, and whale ships, stabbing whales, cutting up whales, and the blubber. I didn't think I'd ever get out of the blubber section. I just didn't care and I certainly didn't want to go through it all again. So now I'm holding a book that to me is compared to the encyclopedia of whale blubber and somehow I still start reading.
This was a really good book. It had to be a really good book, I kept reading and reading. A whale sunk their ship and I kept reading. Whales were getting scarce at the usual killing whale grounds so they have to go further out to sea to kill more whales and I kept reading. I still have to learn about whales, and whale ships, and whale ship captains, and all the other crewmen, and how you sail these ships, and still I kept reading. And it all really happened, when the captain and first mate, and most of the rest of the crew go out in the small ships in an effort to stick things that kill whales into them, it really happened. When a whale, perhaps because he was sick of the entire thing attacks the big ship and actually sinks it, it really happened. And when that leaves a crew of twenty or so, I can't remember how many, stuck in the ocean in the three smaller boats, it really happened. I wonder why they don't just stay on the big ship and shoot at the whales, it seems like it would be safer than being in little boats, but in this case it wasn't. And through it all I kept reading. These men spent months in these boats in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. These men are starving, these men are dying of thirst, these men are just plain dying.
In these boats we have the captain and his men from Nantucket, they all stick together. Then the first mate's boat which has more of the Nantucket men, then the boat with the black sailors in them. The black sailors are the ones that die first, but they aren't the only ones who die. Watching these men die of starvation and dehydration is horrible. But they didn't all die, eight men eventually are saved, and how did they manage to stay alive for months after the food ran out?
”The men were not much more than skeletons themselves, and the story that would be passed from ship to ship in the months ahead was that they were ‘found sucking the bones of their dead mess mates, which they were loath to part with.’”
And I kept reading, that's why this book is getting five stars, anything that can remind me of Moby-Dick every page or so and yet I keep going has to get five stars. Happy reading.
But the thing that had me worried wasn't that, it was the words:
In his riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, Nathaniel Philbrick returns an epic tale - the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick
That's enough, it was those words Moby-Dick that did it. I hated that book, as far as I can tell one of the only people who haven't loved good old Moby-Dick, but I didn't love it. And why didn't I like that good old whale book? Because while I suppose the story, you know the part where they are sailing around the ocean looking for whales, was interesting enough, I'm assuming it was interesting, my mind had nearly shut down from all the other things going on by then. The other things are the non-fictional descriptions of the whaling industry, we have various species of whales, there are a lot of them, I could name them now, but I don't want to, would you like to know the anatomy of the whale? I could tell you, I won't. I learned an awful lot about rope I never needed to know. The descriptions of whaling lines, whale paintings, and whale ships, stabbing whales, cutting up whales, and the blubber. I didn't think I'd ever get out of the blubber section. I just didn't care and I certainly didn't want to go through it all again. So now I'm holding a book that to me is compared to the encyclopedia of whale blubber and somehow I still start reading.
This was a really good book. It had to be a really good book, I kept reading and reading. A whale sunk their ship and I kept reading. Whales were getting scarce at the usual killing whale grounds so they have to go further out to sea to kill more whales and I kept reading. I still have to learn about whales, and whale ships, and whale ship captains, and all the other crewmen, and how you sail these ships, and still I kept reading. And it all really happened, when the captain and first mate, and most of the rest of the crew go out in the small ships in an effort to stick things that kill whales into them, it really happened. When a whale, perhaps because he was sick of the entire thing attacks the big ship and actually sinks it, it really happened. And when that leaves a crew of twenty or so, I can't remember how many, stuck in the ocean in the three smaller boats, it really happened. I wonder why they don't just stay on the big ship and shoot at the whales, it seems like it would be safer than being in little boats, but in this case it wasn't. And through it all I kept reading. These men spent months in these boats in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. These men are starving, these men are dying of thirst, these men are just plain dying.
In these boats we have the captain and his men from Nantucket, they all stick together. Then the first mate's boat which has more of the Nantucket men, then the boat with the black sailors in them. The black sailors are the ones that die first, but they aren't the only ones who die. Watching these men die of starvation and dehydration is horrible. But they didn't all die, eight men eventually are saved, and how did they manage to stay alive for months after the food ran out?
”The men were not much more than skeletons themselves, and the story that would be passed from ship to ship in the months ahead was that they were ‘found sucking the bones of their dead mess mates, which they were loath to part with.’”
And I kept reading, that's why this book is getting five stars, anything that can remind me of Moby-Dick every page or so and yet I keep going has to get five stars. Happy reading.
December 23, 2018
This is a truly fascinating account of the true events of the inspiration behind Melville’s basis for Moby Dick. There are several accounts to speak for here, most of which are from different actual crew members. Combined, these shed some rather critical anthropological light and revealed vital information in my eyes.
Here, too, is Nickerson’s account, presented alongside that of Pollock, the Captain of the Essex; and Chase, first mate. There are also accounts from other whaling ships of the day, as well as sitings; plus many other fascinating things that fully flesh out this account. It makes it feel as if you miss no fact or side view along the way.
To me, this full account was very interesting and very heartbreaking as well. It doesn’t end as the famed fictional tale does. No, you see the entire crew until their last. This is a good thing though. I can’t stand wondering! I don’t like incomplete studies or tales and I believe this one does its absolute best to be complete. It even gives plenty of resources for those whom wish to press further. I often do.
I saw the movie of this title and it entranced me to buy the book with all of the facts in it. Once I got past Chapter 4, I zoomed through it. Beware for the feint of heart though. These poor men go through so much trauma.
This book isn’t really gross in its description, but a lot of the imagery it conjures just might be enough to twist sensitive stomachs. Also animal and marine life lovers want to watch out. Other than the fact that it is about a whaling ship there are other things that might be distressing, as the men forage for food. Ahem.
I just found this to be an important event in history. Yes; Not all of them are pleasant. I learned a lot.
Recommended.
Here, too, is Nickerson’s account, presented alongside that of Pollock, the Captain of the Essex; and Chase, first mate. There are also accounts from other whaling ships of the day, as well as sitings; plus many other fascinating things that fully flesh out this account. It makes it feel as if you miss no fact or side view along the way.
To me, this full account was very interesting and very heartbreaking as well. It doesn’t end as the famed fictional tale does. No, you see the entire crew until their last. This is a good thing though. I can’t stand wondering! I don’t like incomplete studies or tales and I believe this one does its absolute best to be complete. It even gives plenty of resources for those whom wish to press further. I often do.
I saw the movie of this title and it entranced me to buy the book with all of the facts in it. Once I got past Chapter 4, I zoomed through it. Beware for the feint of heart though. These poor men go through so much trauma.
This book isn’t really gross in its description, but a lot of the imagery it conjures just might be enough to twist sensitive stomachs. Also animal and marine life lovers want to watch out. Other than the fact that it is about a whaling ship there are other things that might be distressing, as the men forage for food. Ahem.
I just found this to be an important event in history. Yes; Not all of them are pleasant. I learned a lot.
Recommended.
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