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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.9164
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: May 08, 2000
Publishing house: Viking Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 3049
Studio: Viking Adult
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
This is the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship ESSEX, the inspiration for Melville's great classic, MOBY DICK. In 1820, the ESSEX set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was 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, they clung to life and, one by one, succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear. When eight survivors were retrieved off the coast of Chile, they had sailed almost 4,500 nautical miles across the Pacific.
'A gripping chronicle of an epic voyage of hardship and survival that deserves to be as well known now as it once was.' (Kirkus Reviews)
Amazon.com:
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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A very good story, but as the whalers were slaughtering every whale in sight and dragging the giant Galapagos turtles into their mess halls for dinner, I was cheering for the whales.
Rated by buyers 
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This harrowing, hair-raising adventure story and testament to American ingenuity and resourcefulness is a thrill to read. Philbrick recounts the disaster of the Whaleship Essex largely relying on a careful selection of accounts from the memoirs of First Mate Owen Chase and Boatsteerer Thomas Nickerson that are peppered with interesting and informative annotations from a wealth of other sources.
Clearly the author has an advantage in writing about such an exciting and well documented story, but Philbrick sets himself apart in that he lacks the pretension and glibness of many contemporary historians. For example, nautical terms are used throughout, but not in way that is mired in the nitty-gritty (although the notes provide additional depth) and a clearly labeled illustration is quite enabling for the "coof" (off-islander) or layman reader. Furthermore, the numerous asides do not disrupt the story, but enhance it due to the thoughtfulness and subtly of the author.
This is an excellent and enthralling book from a most perspicacious author. Like the piece of twine weaved together and preserved by Essex survivor Benjamin Lawrence to remind Lawrence of his experience, Philbrick creates quite a yarn that will ensure the survival of the story of the Whaleship Essex for generations to come.
Rated by buyers -
this is one of the finest books i've ever read. the story is fabulous and the author's delivery is perfect. however, it is VERY graphic. the content can be extremely disturbing if you are not interested in the worst events any human can experience. it is told from the perspective of the survivors.
Rated by buyers -
Philbrick is a good writer. Sometimes I felt pulled between the history of Nantucket, an inside look into whaling and the story of the Essex. Each is interesting and deserves its own book. The story of the Essex is incredibly powerful, and I feel that Philbrick treated the terrible survival struggles of the crew at an arm's length. The details were there, just not the emotion. He came close, but this story - with the struggle, errors of judgment, tragedy and cannibalism, had the potential to stand with the classic tales of Bly or Shackleton, but this telling didn't quite deliver.
Rated by buyers -
If you are considering changing carrers to become a nineteenth century whaler, you might want to read this book about whaling, tragedy. cannibalism, and survivial. It has it all. Philbrick has done an excellent job telling the story of the doomed whaler, Essex. It's story is supposedly what Melville based Moby Dick on. It is a page turner. The author brings into the story other old and new survival tales and does a great job keeping the reader involved. The good news is that it is a great book. The bad news is that you might want to reconsider any plans you might be entertaining to buy a harpoon and become a whaler.
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