In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex | Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex | Nathaniel Philbrick | in the heart of the sea

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In the Heart of th...

	In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Nathaniel Philbrick Viking Adult, 2000 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 282 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.

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Excellent and Enthralling Book from a most Perspicacious Author

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.

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in the heart of the sea

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.

horrifying

Well written and horrifying account of the Essex. I am from Boston and I was not aware of the story. Found the book in a store on Nantucket a over the summer. I am glad I remembered to order it when I came home from vaca. If your looking for an adventure story, without a Disney ending,,,,then this book is for you.

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I was cheering for the whales

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.

Well Done

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.

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