In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (repost)
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex By Nathaniel Philbrick
Publisher: Vik.ing Ad.ult 2000 | 320 Pages | ISBN: 0670891576 | PDF | 2 MB
Publisher: Vik.ing Ad.ult 2000 | 320 Pages | ISBN: 0670891576 | PDF | 2 MB
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it–derring-do, cannibalism, rescue–and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production–a vital source of oil–and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.