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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780141001821 |
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
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.
In the Heart of the Sea tells perhaps the greatest sea story ever. 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.
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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crowyhead, September 15, 2006 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This excellent book chronicles the true story that was behind Melville's Moby-Dick. The whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale while hunting in the Pacific, hundreds of miles from land. The survivors were left with three crowded whaleboats, limited food and water, and an almost insurmountable distance to travel to safety. It's a story of survival and of humanity's best and worst qualities, and Philbrick does an excellent job of both spinning a ripping yarn and placing the incident within its historical and societal context. Very well done!
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780141001821
- Subtitle:
- The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Penguin Books
- Location:
- New York
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Ships & Shipbuilding - Shipwrecks
- Subject:
- Maritime History
- Subject:
- United States - 19th Century
- Subject:
- Shipwrecks
- Subject:
- Pacific ocean
- Series Volume:
- FS-145-00
- Publication Date:
- May 2001
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 320
- Dimensions:
- 8.05x5.29x.86 in. .65 lbs.
