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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
4.0
That was extremely interesting. I was surprised by how anticlimactic the attack itself was. It was covered in just a few pages in the middle of the book. The vast majority of the book was setting the stage, talking about the voyage up till the attack and an overview of the whaling industry before the attack and after it focused on the escape back home. But the attack itself was very brief and to the point.
The overview of the whaling industry on Nantucket and the description of the operation of a whaler was extremely interesting. I'm always interested by how developed these processes get to be. In my job I work with manufacturing processes and a crap ton of planning goes into it nowadays and I just doubt everyone had a sit down and discussed what would work best on a whaler so I'm always fascinated by how well thought out these things can be.
And the survival attempt was heartbreaking. The sailors braved starvation and dehydration to cross thousands of miles of open sea to get home and most didn't make it. What they descended to hurt to read.
I also got the impression in here that sperm whale attacks were uncommon at the time the Essex was attacked but they got more common over time. I wonder if that's because more docile whales were gradually killed off and eventually the more aggressive ones were all that was left? Or, did the whales start cottoning on that these ships and the boats they launched were hunting them and decided to fight back? I've always heard that whales are fairly smart.
Overall, it was a very interesting read.
The overview of the whaling industry on Nantucket and the description of the operation of a whaler was extremely interesting. I'm always interested by how developed these processes get to be. In my job I work with manufacturing processes and a crap ton of planning goes into it nowadays and I just doubt everyone had a sit down and discussed what would work best on a whaler so I'm always fascinated by how well thought out these things can be.
And the survival attempt was heartbreaking. The sailors braved starvation and dehydration to cross thousands of miles of open sea to get home and most didn't make it. What they descended to hurt to read.
I also got the impression in here that sperm whale attacks were uncommon at the time the Essex was attacked but they got more common over time. I wonder if that's because more docile whales were gradually killed off and eventually the more aggressive ones were all that was left? Or, did the whales start cottoning on that these ships and the boats they launched were hunting them and decided to fight back? I've always heard that whales are fairly smart.
Overall, it was a very interesting read.