Nathaniel Philbrick
Paperback | Pages: 302 pages Rating: 4.16 | 79676 Users | 5639 Reviews
List Appertaining To Books In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
| Title | : | In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex |
| Author | : | Nathaniel Philbrick |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 302 pages |
| Published | : | May 1st 2001 by Penguin Books (first published May 8th 2000) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Adventure. Historical. Survival. North American Hi.... American History. Audiobook |
Narration Conducive To Books 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.Particularize Books As In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
| Original Title: | In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex |
| ISBN: | 0141001828 (ISBN13: 9780141001821) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | George Pollard, Thomas Nickerson, Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, Matthew Joy, Thomas Chappel, Owen Coffin, Barzillai Ray |
| Setting: | Nantucket, Massachusetts(United States) South Pacific |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award for Nonfiction (2000), Ambassador Book Award for American Studies (2001), Massachusetts Book Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2001), ALA Alex Award (2001) |
Rating Appertaining To Books In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Ratings: 4.16 From 79676 Users | 5639 ReviewsJudgment Appertaining To Books In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
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 Nantuckets 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 theThis review is a Chris Hemsworth-free zone! Yes, he was in the crappy film version of this book. No, I wont use any pics in my review.HehThere once was a man from Nantucket,Who was so big he couldThe 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
Best piece of non-fiction Ive read in years I know its a cliché but you cant 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 Blighs 48 day ordeal pales in comparison. They eventually turned to cannibalism which call me weird I didnt have a problem with. A card carrying organ donor I figure Im dead anyway - eat me. When it came down to drawing lots though, that pushed my buttons.
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
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
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
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
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.