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In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex
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In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Publisher: New York : Viking, 2000.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel  Read more...
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
In the heart of the sea.
New York : Viking, 2000
(OCoLC)606302714
Online version:
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
In the heart of the sea.
New York : Viking, 2000
(OCoLC)608132810
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Nathaniel Philbrick
ISBN: 0670891576 9780670891573
OCLC Number: 42736296
Description: xvi, 302 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Contents: ch. 1. Nantucket --
ch.2. Knockdown --
ch. 3. First blood --
ch. 4. The lees of fire --
ch. 5. The attack --
ch. 6. The plan --
ch. 7. At sea --
ch. 8. Centering down --
ch. 9. The island --
ch. 10. The whisper of necessity --
ch. 11. Games of change --
ch. 12. In the eagle's shadow --
ch. 13. Homecoming --
ch. 14. Consequences --
Epilogue : bones.
Responsibility: by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Abstract:

In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months tested just how far humans could go in their battle against the sea as, one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease and fear. ... This is a timeless account of the human spirit under extreme duress, but it is also a story about a community and about the kind of men and women who lived in a forbidding, remote island like Nantucket. -- Dust jacket.

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Well told tale of shipwrecked whalers

by vleighton (WorldCat user published 2007-03-09) Very Good Permalink
Philbrick retells well the story of the Essex, which was the ship wreck that formed the core of the tale that Melville used to create Moby Dick. He begins by characterizing the society of Nantucket, from which the Essex originated. He explains the journey that the ship had prior to reaching the whaling...
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