Re: Honors Novel #2

In the 1800s, Nantucket’s whaling industry flourished with men who lived to sail the rough African, Asian, Latin, and American seas. For a period of two to three years at a time, most of the highly appraised Nantucketer men left their wife and children to hunt Sperm whales for their greatly depended on oil. Now, a story based on this information would appear to be a regular piece of nonfiction, but in Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, he introduced a surprisingly true, wild, and remarkable account. Throughout the book, he explains a series of events that was a catalyst for later novels and stories such as Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Also, questions like- Is it a dangerous task, should people still venture out into a sea of monsters, and more- came into play.
In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Nantucket’s gentle and mostly Amish atmosphere. While the people of this island are nice and extremely religious, they also have an almost condescending attitude. Since they had a ton of experience in the whaling industry, factories from the main land relied on them to get oil for machines because they were considered qualified since they knew how to process and strip blubber from a whale. However we are mostly familiarized with a few of the sailors from the grand old whaling ship, The Essex. While we are taken throughout The Essex’s uncanny and unfortunate adventures, we note that they had set off on their hunt to find less than half of the oil supply they finally needed. They started from their native island and ended up travelling an enormous distance.
On their journey, The Essex’s crewmembers were mostly “greenhands,” a nickname for new sailors on the job. The captain and the first mate had to teach the greenhands the vicious technique of killing the massive Sperm whales and on the first try; they failed their captain, George Pollard. As for the result, one of their dinghies was smashed to bits by the whale, flinging the remnants and people out into the ocean. Unfortunately, this was just one of the many unsatisfying events that devastated the sailors, causing what some believe was a curse.
Throughout the story, the crewmembers had their ups and downs, but mostly negative. One sailor, Thomas Chappel, burned down one of the islands they had taken a stop at. It was later explained that the island, known as Charles Island, had its known population of Giant Tortoises wiped out because of the crewmember.
However, on November 5th, their journey on The Essex ended and a massive Sperm whale rammed into the ship causing not only confusion, but panic as well. Why was the whale showing such aggression? The sailors soon found a leak and realized the ship was sinking. They crowded into 3 small dinghies and watched what they had known as their home for the past year sink. As they began their long and tough journey with little food and fresh water, the story revealed their excruciating pain that dealt with death, starvation, and cannibalism.
Death came mostly later on after about 30 days had passed, and the idea of cannibalism scared the crewmembers at first. The fact that a few islands such as Tahiti were ironically closer to them taunted them because they knew they would find refuge on the islands, but they also had heard tales of cannibalism and homosexuals. These rumors mostly encouraged their decision to travel to coast of Chile. However, this required them to travel a distance of 2000 feet, and that didn’t count wind resistance or other obstacles.
These implied obstacles came one by one. There were storms, and sharks, and orcas, and salt water which dehydrated them immensely. Rations of food also decreased in size as their hope did too, but one day they found a small island. Eggs, berries, and small birds became their diet for about two weeks until there was barely any food left. They then set sail on a darker journey, and this one would lead to many deaths and even one of their most unspoken fears: cannibalism.
While the daily portion of hardtack supplied not even ¼ of their regular diet’s carbohydrates, many of the sailors turned into skeletons. Fresh water was lacking too, and their tongues became hard, and their minds weakened. Many actually hallucinated and became cold and exhausted. After a few days, the three boats separated, causing the people to become depressed.
Not before long did one member die, causing the sailors to look at the body with a painful hunger. They decided to eat their old friend, and began to cut off his familiar features. Resorting to cannibalism became familiar with the other boats as well. After awhile, death came frequently, and the members ate the remaining body. One extremely surprising death was caused by a “game” known as lots. Lots required a name to be picked out of a hat, which determined who would be killed for cannibalism. Captain Pollard’s nephew voted for it, and since they were in the same boat, the captain felt uncomfortable with the idea. However after the other members of the boat sided with his nephew, he didn’t resist. His nephew was the one that had to be eaten, and Captain Pollard ended up regretting it for the rest of his life.
Only a few members remained, but when the final crewmembers were rescued by another whaling ship, their grief hadn’t ceased. Starvation takes many months to recover, and it took The Essex’s captain 2 months to heal until he could finally return to his native island.
The long and eventful story is the reason why this book cannot be put down. It’s incredible and wild account described a tale that no one had heard of at the time, or even in our time now.