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Customer Reviews
Thomas Nickerson's story laid unpublished in an attic for over 100 years and it does throw some new light on the tale.
Nickerson's frank and often perceptive view of his colleagues gives us much insight of the cameraderie that was bound around sailors lives back in the early 17th century. His sensativity to others plights, adds to the story, and makes the adventure much more human.
An excellent read and still quite awe inspiring after all these years.
Mick Henry
After having killed off the whale population in the Atlantic, the New England whale ships pushed farther into the ocean to find their prey - the spermacetti whale. Hunting grounds in the Pacific were discovered and, after a year's journey rounding South America in which it lost half of its boats in a sudden gale, the whale ship Essex set out to fill its hold with the valuable whale oil armed with only 3 small boats. During a hunt, one of the boats was stove by the death throes of a speared sperm whale and returned to the ship. While enacting repairs, the pings of the first mate's hammer attracted the attention of a large bull sperm whale, a creature uniquely designed for ramming. The bull made two charges, collapsing the bow of the ship on either side of the keel, and 20 men found themselves alone, in 3 open boats, deep in the heart of the blue Pacific, with only faint hopes of rescue.
The Essex did not sink immediately, and the men were able to salvage a few casks of water, some navigational instruments, and hard biscuits (which would later be fouled by ocean spray and induce dehydration in the men). The first mate also had paper and pencil, which he used for keeping a daily diary of their attempts to survive the ravages of storms, thirst, hunger, and attacks by killer whales and large sharks.
I read this book prior to reading "In The Heart of The Sea", also by Nathaniel Philbrick, and I was glad I did. The first-person narratives really bring home the tale, and Philbrick's other book helps fill in the historical background. I would recommend reading this book with a good atlas, so that you can plot the narrator's progress as he tries to bring his ship to South America, against the wind, the current, and his dwindling strength, and realize just how screwed these sailors really were.
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