In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex
(Book)

Includes index.

Bibliography: p.279-299.

In his riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, Nathaniel Philbrick returns an epic tale- the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick-- to its rightful place in America history. In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage to hunt 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. Fearing cannibals on the island to the west, the 20-man crew set out in three small boats for South America, almost 3,000 miles away. Three months later, only eight were left alive, the survivors having been forced to eat the bodies of their dead shipmates. The ordeal of the Essex was as well known in its time as the story of the Titanic is today. In the Heart of the Sea shares a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of the whaling tradition, with deep resonance in literature and American history, and in the life of the Nantucket community.