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

"The whale approached the ship at double its initial pace, at least six knots, with its massive, scarred head partly out of the water and its tail thrashing the ocean into a white-water wake more than forty feet broad. Just below the anchor fastened at the cat-head on the port bow, it impacted the ship with a terrible cracking and splintering of wood.

The amazing tale of the whaleship Essex crash, which served as the model for Moby-Dick's climactic scene and was as legendary in its own century as the Titanic tragedy was in ours, is resurrected in In the Heart of the Sea. Nathaniel Philbrick returns this epic tale to its proper place in American history with a terrifying page-turner.

The 240-ton Essex sailed on a normal whale-hunting expedition from Nantucket in 1820. Fifteen months later, an eighty-ton bull sperm whale repeatedly battered and sank it in the farthest depths of the South Pacific. Fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, its crew of twenty set off in three small boats toward the 3,000-mile coast of South America. The survivors struggled to survive for ninety days at sea in appalling circumstances, but one by one they perished from dehydration, starvation, sickness, and terror.

In addition to a plethora of whale anecdotes, Philbrick skillfully blends his story of this remarkable suffering of common men with a minutely detailed portrayal of the vanished, distinctive Nantucket whalers culture. The book presents the ultimate picture of man versus nature and is flawlessly researched. It draws on a stunning array of contemporary and archival materials, including a long-lost cabin boy story from the ship.

In the Heart of the Sea will live on as an important piece of American history, serving as both a literary companion and a page-turner that addresses the same themes of race, class, and man's connection to nature that pervade Melville's writings.