In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

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With its huge, scarred head halfway out of the water and its tail beating the ocean into a white water wake than forty feet across, the whale approached the ship at twice its original speed at least six knots With a tremendous cracking and splintering of oak, it struck the ship just beneath the anchor secured at the cat head on the port bow In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby Dick In a harrowing page turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.In 1820, the 240 ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty ton bull sperm whale Its twenty man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000 mile distant coast of South America in three tiny boats During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long lost account by the ship s cabin boy.At once a literary companion and a page turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man s relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history. Free Read [ In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex ] by [ Nathaniel Philbrick ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods 500 m or 550 yards directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots 44 km h , and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship Owen Chase, first mate of the whaleship Essex There she blows was as much I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods 500 m or 550 yards directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed of around 24 knots 44 km h , and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship Owen Chase, first mate of the whaleship Essex There she blows was as much a part of my vocabulary as a child as Launch the torpedoes or Geronimo or Remember the Alamo I wasn t using it correctly, as I was no...There s one thing you need to know about me I ve never listened to a song by Rush all the way through Really If Alvin and the Chipmunks were re imagined as opera singers, the lead singer could be bass I can t take them seriously.Okay, okay Really there are two things you need to know about me I distrust people who walk on the balls of their feet You know, that little bounce Call it instinct, but I see something morally deficient in it It s like Nature is giving the rest of us a There s one thing you need to know about me I ve never listened t...I have never, ever, in my LIFE, met a nonfiction book I was unable to put down before This may be because I am stupid, but I like to think it s because I m interested in the details Most nonfiction I ve encountered is either written by a Someone who experienced something interesting, but who can t write about it in an interesting way, orb Someone who perhaps usually writes about things in an interesting way, but who wasn t able to experience the critical subject firsthand.Philbrick bridges I have never, ever, in my LIFE, met a nonfiction book I was unable to put down before This may be because I am stupid, but I like to think it s because I m interested in the details Most nonfiction I ve encountered is either written by a Someone who experienced something interesting, but who can t write about it in an interesting way, orb Someone who perhaps usually writes about things in an interesting way, but who wasn t able to experience the critical su...Best piece of non fiction I ve read in years I know it s a clich but you can t make this stuff up In 1819, a whaling ship is rammed by a sperm whale, not once but twice and the surviving crew drifts for 90 days in three tiny boats, Captain Bligh s 48 day ordeal pales in comparison They eventually turned t...This book was a fantastic tale, the facts of which were an inspiration to Melville who met the surviving captain years later The ship Essex headed to whaling groups in as Phibrick excellently describes as the most desolate spot on Earth a thousand miles off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Beset by bad luck, the boat is stuck for weeks in the doldrums with no wind, struck by an unhappy but not white whale which founders...This review is a Chris Hemsworth free zone Yes, he was in the crappy film version of this book No, I won t use any pics in my review.Heh There once was a man from Nantucket,Who was so big he could The island of Nantucket has loads to answer for beyond smutty limericks About 200 years ago, they were at the very pinnacle of the whale slaughtering business.Top of the world, indeed.The Nantucket whalers were about due for a cosmic bitch slap, hence the events depicted in this book Avast ye, This review is a ...A phenomenal telling of the disaster at sea, that spurred Herman Melville to write Moby Dick,In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick is exceptional Philbrick takes us inside the tragedy with painstaking care and newly discovered research He describes hour to hour what happened on the ill fated voyage This is my favorite type of historical writing It never feels stodgy or stilted You feel like you are there suffering along with the crew Ultimately, it is a tale of the optimism of the A phenomenal telling of the disaster at sea, that spurred Herman Melville to write Moby Dick,In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick is exceptional Philbrick takes us inside the tragedy with painstaking care and newly discovered ...It was a tale of a whale man s worst nightmare of being left in a boat far from land with nothing left to eat or drink and perhaps worst of allof a whale with the vindictiveness and guile of a man This deadly true story of the 1820 85 long, 80 ton whale attack on the Essex was not exactly what I expected, but oh so muchIt begins with background of Captain and crew, the unimaginable time spent away from home and how their wives coped in their absence often resorting to use of It was a tale of a whale man s worst nightmare of being left in a boat far from land with nothing left to eat or drink and perhaps worst of allof a whale with the vindictiveness and guile of a man This deadly true story of the 1820 85 long, 80 ton whale attack on the Essex was not exactly what I expected, but oh so muchIt begins with background of Captain and crew, the unimaginable time spent away from home and how their wives coped in their absence often resorting to use of laudanum, opium and a plaster penisouch Anyway, a tragedy, that could have been avoided, takes survival to its ultimate limits For as long as men had been sailing the world s oceans, famished sailors had been sustaining themselves on the remains of dead shipmates as cannibalism is, for the most part, humanely described within this narrative.While graphically vivid, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA turned out to be an exceptionally informative history lesson for me with an...OMG THIS IS BECOMING A MOVIE OMG OMG OMG I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOWMOBY DICK is one of my favorite books, so I m ashamed that it took me so long to read IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, the inspiration for Melville s classic and the true tale of the Essex s sinking by an angry sperm whale I m a sucker for historical nonfiction, especially when it concerns an event I have a little preexisting knowledge of That said, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that the great American novel was based on a tale of such brutal survival and sheer terror Nathaniel MOBY DICK is one of my favorite books, so I m ashamed that it took me so long to read IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, the inspiration for Melville s classic and the true tale of the Essex s sinking by an angry sperm whale I m a sucker for historical nonfiction, especially when it concerns an event I have a little preexisting knowledge of That said, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that the great American novel was based on a tale of such brutal survival and sheer terror Nathaniel Philbrick does an incredible job of bringing the story of the Essex s cre...

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
  • English
  • 02 August 2018
  • Paperback
  • 302 pages
  • 0141001828
  • Nathaniel Philbrick
  • In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex