In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Wheeler Large Print Book Series (Cloth))

Rating:
Summary: High adventure
Review: The story of the whaleship Essex was well known in the 19th century and most likely formed the inspiration for Herman Melville's novel MOBY DICK. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean in November 1820, the 238-ton Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. Over the next three months and 4,500 miles, the dwindling crew fought the open sea and each other in a struggle for survival. Although the story no longer resides in our national consciousness, it is a story worth telling and Nathaniel Philbrook does an admirable job of it with IN THE HEART OF THE SEA.

Piecing together first-person accounts, Philbrook recreates the final voyage of the Essex in remarkable detail. He provides a vivid picture of the life and work aboard a Nantucket whaler in the early days of the whale trade. However, the bulk of IN THE HEART OF THE SEA concerns the events following the sinking of the Essex as the crew of twenty officers and men crowded into three small, open whaleboats pondering their fate. After three months, two whaleboats (now separated by hundreds of miles) and five men remained and were eventually rescued off the Chilean coast.

The story of survival on the high seas is both harrowing and moving: the suffering unimaginable. Resorting to cannibalism to sustain them, at one point they had to draw lots rather than wait for the next man to die. Again due to the accounts of survivors, Philbrook is able to recreate these months in astonishing detail.

What emerges is a multi-faceted book which not only tells a compelling tale of high adventure and survival, but also illustrates beautifully a lost era in American history. I highly recommend this book.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the Sea's Tortures and Salvations
Review: This is an amazing book. Initially, it comes across as sort of a spin-off on books like "Into Thin Air" and "The Perfect Storm" -- both of which Mr. Philbrick has acknowledged as inspirations -- but I actually think "Into the Heart . . ." surpasses both, particularly in the depth of feeling this book inspires. All the elements of a great adventure story are here: life on the high seas, tragedy at sea, cannibalism, rescue after months at sea in small whaling boats, and so on. But the author trascends the obvious, and renders the participants in this tragedy as fully believable, three-dimensional human beings even though the incidents described in thebook took place almost 200 years ago. A couple of seasons ago, NBC TV managed to make a fairly dull documentary based on this book, which may have dissuaded a few potential readers. If so, it's very unfortunate because "In the Heart of the Sea" is a very, very well-written and very moving story.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful stuff
Review: Nat Philbrick's book created much interest in this fascinating episode in American whaling history. It is a strange and almost impossibly unhappy story, but Mr Philbrick leaves all participants, even those that decided to violate our greatest taboo by eating dead crewmen, with dignity. The book is simply a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Great if you want a light read.
Review: Philbrick has written his book in the style of a "Docu-drama" on the TV. That is to say, this is neither a history of events, nor is it a novelisation. It hangs awkwardly in-between.

On the one hand the author provides us with pages of notes at the end of the book, and makes this "Seem" like a well researched history of events. But on the other hand he injects excitement and character into the book by imagining the inner workings of the minds of those involved.

At times, to illustrate sufferings or events, he leaps to other incidents (the Donner Party) and to studies (of thirst and hunger) to explain the decisions or points of view of the characters involved. This can be disorientating, but generally helps the modern reader to get to grips with the subject.

What Philbrick singularly fails to do is to convey the reality of life aboard a whale ship to his readers. Many other books have done this far better. Dana's "Two years before the mast", and Melvilles "Moby Dick" give much more insight into the sailors lot, and there are many other well known incidents that Philbrick could have drawn upon to illustrate his story better.

This is a light read, and interesting to someone who knows little or nothing about the subject. But for those who have read a lot on things nautical it comes across as shallow, and clearly an outsiders perspective.