In 1820, the whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale, leaving the desperate crew to drift for more than ninety days in three tiny boats. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents and vivid details about the Nantucket whaling tradition to reveal the chilling facts of this infamous maritime disaster.
Just 3 days ago I was in the Essex's home port of Nantucket. Toured the Whaling museum where a staff member did a presentation all about the before ,during, and after stories of the Essex crew members. very well told story. That whaling life was quite an adventure.
ReplyDeleteYup, read that book a few years ago (the Opie movie sucks)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting story.
Excellent book, Philbrick is a superb author, I'd read damned near anything he writes.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU for posting this!
ReplyDeleteInspired by this post, I have ordered copies of the Kindle edition and a hardback edition for my personal library.
Glad to hear it. I'm an advocate for the hardback, personal library thing. Those are low tech, but very stable stores of knowledge that it is good to have in times like these.
DeleteThe Essex incident was the primary inspiration for Melville to write Moby Dick.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites. Unfortunately I read this before Moby Dick so I didn't find the latter as satisfying.
ReplyDeleteFrom Chapter 96, The Try Works:
Delete... as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul.
The English language used at its maximum power!
The first mate on the voyage was Owen Chase. His horrific account of the tragedy is available online.
ReplyDeleterecall, the first casualty on the lifeboat was the only black crew member (or two).
ReplyDelete...pass the salt.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteHave a copy, and have read it more than once.
Once isn't enough.
There are so many excellent books written on deeply interesting topics, these are added to my long list. I hope I get to as many as possible before I pass.
ReplyDelete