Shipwreck Of The Whaleship Essex: The true story that inspired the film In the Heart of the Sea - Softcover

Owen Chase

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9780712667418: Shipwreck Of The Whaleship Essex: The true story that inspired the film In the Heart of the Sea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712667415 ISBN 13: 9780712667418

Publisher: Pimlico, 2000

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On 20 November 1820, just south of the equator, the whaling ship Essex, out of Nantucket, spotted a 'shoal' of sperm whales. It was a fine clear day, about eight in the morning. Two whaling boats, lightly built for rowing speed, were lowered from the Essex. The crew pursued and harpooned tree of the whales, whereupon the largest of them - some 85 feet long - rammed the Essex twice in ten minutes and 'stove in her bows'.

This remarkable incident was followed by an epic three-month journey in open boats across storm-tossed seas - a feat of navigation and survival that rivals those of Shackleton and Bligh. Only eight men survived, sustained by eating six of those who died.

Twenty-three-year-old Owen Chase was first mate of the Essex. His narrative of these events makes compulsive reading. This edition also includes memoirs by another crew member and by ship's captain, as well as a facsimile of Herman Melville's notes on Chase's account.

Capturing all the elements of an ancient and powerful tragedy, this book is a thrilling tale of survival - as well as a frightful illustration of man's darkest impulses.

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Review:

Moby Dick was written after Herman Melville had read a survivor's account of the wreck of a Nantucket whaling ship in 1820 and the three subsequent months of gruelling sailing in open boats endured by the whalers. As a source of Melville's inspiration, Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex is part of literary history. Melville believed that Owen Chase's narrative was written from first-hand "dictation of the facts". This edition incorporates an interesting introduction detailing the American whaling industry and footnotes clarify the few problem items of vocabulary. Two short "missionary tracts" are included, providing other versions of the story, and facsimiles of Melville's notes on Chase (with transcriptions), complete the volume. Together, these texts provide a fascinating picture of the character, attitudes and beliefs of the whalers and their world. As a convincing account of the limits of human endurance, Chase's tale is also of timeless interest. Initially determined and logical, the men are reduced to "being hardly able to crawl around the boat", so close to starvation that they eventually resort to the "revolting ideas" of cannibalism. Only eight out of 20 men make it to the point of rescue.

Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex is a gripping story never over-sensationalised. The whaler "knows that his laurels are plucked from the brink of danger" and this tale amply communicates the comradeship and the bravery of these men from the past. --Karen Tiley

Review:

"The effect is kaleidoscopic. A vivid portrait emerges of the shipwrecked men's privatations and fundamental moral dilemma: literally to eat or be eaten" (Lawrence Norfolk)

"Chase's book still has an almost Biblical power" (Mail on Sunday)

"An incredibly vivid journal of survival" (Scotsman)

"The reading of this wondrous story...had a surprising effect on me" (Herman Melville)

"When I found myself popping the notes I attach to potential quotes to virtually every page, I realised I might as well just deliver a rousing injunction to read the book for yourselves" (Christina Hardyment Independent)

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