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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
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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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 fields. He then details the crew's ill fortunes as they were trapped in whaling boats, trying to reach land.The ship was indeed sunk by being rammed by a wounded whale. The crew was out in the whaling boats when it was struck. As the ship sank, they had enough time to salvage nautical tools and some supplies. They made crude sails and charted a course across half of the Pacific Ocean.The story was preserved both by written records and the accounts of the surviving members of the crew. The men gradually starved. Survivors cannibalized the dead to stay alive. The survivors were raving mad from hunger and dehydration by the time they were found.
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