"In the Heart of the Sea"

[Worst Username Ever]

The tragedy of the whaleship Essex. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. Not just because it is an amazing miracle that anyone lived, but it also goes deep into the roots of the whaling industry as it once was, and the day-to-day living of Nantucket, America's once biggest whaling town. AMAZING.

[Hobarticus]

1. Agreed, excellent book...

Very vivid descriptions of the whale trade, both at sea and on shore.

[YankeyMCC]

2. Philbrick's other books

"In the heart of the Sea" is definately one of my favorites. I also read "Sea of Glory" which was an excellent bit of American history that seems pretty much forgotten to most people...at least I never knew anything about this major piece of American history until I read this book.

[Sacajawea]

7. I thought "Sea of Glory" was an amazing story....

...and to think the fruits of that truly "fantastic voyage" were the seeds of our Smithsonian Institution!!!

Those men who took their tiny frail wooden ships to the edges of Antarctica were staggeringly brave!!!

[Bunny]

3. It was a great read.

Very detailed, interesting account of the whaling industry. The captain allowing himself to be second-guessed was a huge error, wasn't it? It's amazing that anyone survived that. The wrenching decisions as to the cannibal thing - whew!

[Tangledog]

4. Yeah, wonderful

I read this in two sittings, I think. I knew it was a tough business, but Philbrick is such a vivid writer, he made it a little more real to me how dangerous and lonely it was. For some reason, it had never crossed my mind that these people sailed around South America and into the Pacific, with inadequate maps, for more than a year at a time. Like you say, you wonder how any of them survived.

I've never been to Nantucket, but New Bedford was another hub of the whaling industry, and much of the center of town has been turned into a historic district, commemorating the whaling industry and much else that happened there. I went there for a folk festival a couple of years ago, and ended up enjoying the historical aspects more than I did the music.

[YankeyMCC]

5. The whaling museum in New Bedford

is excellent, much better than anything on Nantucket.

These whalers were really something, they were essentially merchent explorers for America. And they accepted levels of risk we don't seem to accept at all in today's explorations.

I don't mean to romanticize the industry, as Philbrick so clearly points out it was a dirty nasty business and we all know the ecological impact. I just think it is healthy to recognize these were human beings who were not all evil or all good and that the whaling industry in America has a significant contribution to our history and not just a one dimensional evil we have to live with.

[LWolf]

6. I read the kids' version last spring:

Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex
for older kids. The author adapted it for a younger audience.

It was still pretty graphic; I had it in a pile of "end of the year summer reading" books I give to my class as gifts the last day of school. I held this one back for most of the kids, but let one of my 6th grade boys take it; his passion is mythology, and his family has approved some pretty graphic, adult level mythology books for him to read. He found me in class, the week before school started this year, getting ready for a new group of kids, specifically to discuss this book. He was fascinated with it, but a little shaken by the cannibalism.

My favorite book on the whaling industry in the early 19th century is Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Harding Dana.