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

by Nathaniel Philbrick

The inspiration for "Moby Dick" is part textbook but all adventure

Reviewed by: William K. Wolfrum
About William K. Wolfrum

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex As a one-time commercial fisherman and perpetual avid reader, it was as if Nathaniel Philbrick wrote "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" just for me. I guess that's just the way it is with any book that truly captures your imagination, but the beauty is that for us all, it feels like a unique experience between reader and writer.

"In the Heart of the Sea" is the best, most readable, non-fiction book I've ever read. It's the compelling story of how a crew of whalers left the shores of Nantucket under a new captain on a whaleship called the Essex. Philbrick's remarkable research gives you a taste of America in the early 1800s that both delights and shocks.

The inspiration for Melville's epic "Moby Dick," "In the Heart of the Sea," is an easily readable textbook/storybook that brings up monumental moral questions. "How far would you go to survive?" chief among them.

In a brief synopsis, 20 whalers head out on the Essex, during a time when whaling was a lucrative, burgeoning business. It is an ill-fated, problematic trip from the start, only to be made light-years worse when the Essex is repeatedly rammed by a huge sperm whale. The Essex takes its watery grave and 19 men (one lucky crewman had deserted earlier) take to harpoon boats with little to eat or drink.

The three boats would be adrift for 93 days, except for a few days at a fairly deserted island (where three of the whalers decided to stay). With land often only a scant hundred miles away, the boats took a 3,000-mile journey. With their food gone and crewmates falling ill and into madness, choices for survival are made.

Philbrick handles it all at a fast, readable pace. This is no "Moby Dick" in terms of literature in a grand, nearly undecipherable scale. What "In the Heart of the Sea" is, however, is a book that grabs you and holds you until the bitter end, as you slowly discover who survived and why.

This book got to me because I could relate to the situation. But others I know who have read it love it for other reasons. It is a chance to time travel to a long-forgotten era. It is a high-seas, swashbuckling, real-life adventure. Simply put, it is a hell of a ride.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Copyright © by William K. Wolfrum, 2002

Reviewed by William K. Wolfrum:
-- Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
-- In the Heart of the Sea - by Nathaniel Philbrick









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