In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

What a powerful book. This book drew lots of emotion out of me and I developed lots of empathy for the whalers and their families, plus the slaughtering of the whales added to my wanting of the whaling industry of today totally stopped. Its totally inhumane, gross and horrible. I feel for the whales too. Great action and historical truth about the whale ship Essex and her crew and their families in Nantucket.In the Heart of the Sea The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex is a page burner. Read it in 1 1/2 day. No boring parts...a fascinating read. This was the true story Herman Melville based his epic great novel Moby Dick on. Nathaniel Philbrick wrote a fascinating true historical book on the tragedy that befalls the crew on the whale ship Essex. 1819 the whale ship Essex and her 20 man crew leave Nantucket island for a 1 1/2 year regular whaling voyage. Unfortunately the Essex is rammed twice by an estimated 85ft Sperm Whale. The Essex is capsized and later sinks. The crew abandon ship in 3 small whaleboats with only a few hundred pounds of hardtack for food and luckily several nautical sighting instruments. LOTs of mistakes are made by Captain George Pollard, first mate Chase and a man named Joy in charge of their respective whaleboats. The captain had originally the right idea to head for an island but was swayed by the other officers because of fears of cannibals on islands to head for South America. We see the tragic dilemma of missing the right winds, missing closer islands with no cannibals and having to travel thousands of miles and running out of food and water. The men are forced to become cannibals and eating their dead friends and one time a young man ( Captain Pollard's nephew) draws a lot and is killed and eaten. Strange and suspect that the first eaten were all the black sailors. INMO the true Nantucket natives kept to themselves and became the hawks to prey on the blacks who seemed to get sicker first. The blacks had the poorer food on the Essex and developed less body fat to sustain them in their hunger and lack of food shipwrecked at sea. This to me was a very emotional tragedy story not a true adventure story. If you can't feel for these people you have no emotions. Two partial boats with a few survivors are rescued after a few months at sea...most dead and eaten by the survivors. One boat found with only 4 skeletons. Three men are left on a small island with only their wits to capture the little food on the island and a spring that goes out under the tide so little or no water, are later rescued. You can imagine what the different families on Nantucket went through after hearing about the Essex sinking and later the survival stories related to cannibalism. Gives me the horrors just thinking about it. Just look at all the 5 star reviews. Lots of other reviewers thought this was a great book. If you want a book that will pull on your emotions and let you develop deep empathy toward the whalers and their families this is the book for you. Again INMO this is not a true adventure book but a deeply emotional tragedy. Also lots of great nautical whaling history before and after the Essex tragedy. 5 stars

This is a wonderful book. Unfortunately the Kindle version is seriously deficient. Only location numbers are provided, but no page numbers until the Epilogue at the end of the book which is listed as page 102 of 226. The photos begin on page 109 but jump to page 226 between two photographs! The table of contents does not provide page numbers or location numbers and the 3x3 grid of pages provides only a dash, "-", instead of page numbers or location numbers until the Epilogue on page 102 when they suddenly appear. Clearly no one made any effort to proof the Kindle version.

“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. . . . it was too late for a change of course. With a tremendous cracking and splintering of oak, the whale struck the ship just beneath the anchor secured at the cathead on the port bow.” A reader confronted with this description might be forgiven for assuming that it could only have come from Herman Melville’s massive 19th-century novel <i>Moby Dick</i>. Where else in the world would you find such an incredible, far-fetched idea as a giant whale attacking a ship? But as unlikely as it may seem, the scene is not fiction but taken from Nathaniel Philbrick’s non-fiction account of the sinking of the whaleship <i>Essex</i> on November 20, 1819. <i>In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex</i>, published in 2001, is a gripping and sometimes appalling rendering of the story of the first Nantucket whale ship ever to be sunk as a result of an attack by a whale (though not the last). And the original accounts of the story, spreading in the years following the event, were, in fact, the inspiration for Melville’s novel, published in 1851. The great 19th-century novelist even becomes an important thread in Philbrick’s narrative. <i>In the Heart of the Sea</i> is both gripping storytelling and agonizing analysis of the desperate lengths starving castaways on the high seas have gone to in history to survive. The dreadful realities of the <i>Essex</i> survivors during three months at sea in small boats include violent storms, deadly heat, starvation, cannibalism, drawing lots for execution, and more. Though Philbrick lays bare the suffering of the men, their courage, will to live, determination, and perseverance are inspiring. It’s easy to see why <i>In the Heart of the Sea</i> won the National Book Award. The story is gripping, the research is extensive, and the writing powerful.

Just could not put the book down , engaging and entertaining . Loved every page of it .

This was a fascinating yet heart wrenching story, combining the sheer strength of determination a human can summon, survival against all odds, and pointless, avoidable death. The story is told in incredible detail and the writer does an excellent job of showing the reader the cultural context as well as the bare facts. A great read.

The origins of Moby Dick! Highly recommended. The perfect companion of Ron Howards' movie In The Heart Of The Sea

One of the best books about the sea ever written. The courage and fortitude of these whalers was beyond magnificent. The author relates every excruciating detail of their epic voyage of survival but in a very suspenseful manner. Must read!

This was easy to read and full of information about people and whaling. I loved it. It's a good book to kill some time with and it's pretty well written.