This book may not offer the page-turning urgency of Philbrick's own prose, but it compensates with the chill of its immediacy. Collected here are eyewitness accounts by the first mate and the cabin boy, as well as a letter by the captain who rescued two of the Essex's survivors it also includes the notes Melville made in his copy of the first mate's book. In addition to writing his own version, Philbrick has edited The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale (Penguin, $13). The courage and sheer strength of the men who survived these ordeals is mind-boggling.
#Tim and moby ships crack
Eyelids crack and eyeballs weep tears of blood. In cases of severe dehydration, Philbrick writes, the tongue hardens, then swells, and speech becomes impossible, though sufferers sometimes moan and bellow. In the Heart of the Sea (Viking, $25) draws on survivors' accounts, including a long-lost version by the ship's cabin boy, and includes fascinating details about the effects of exposure and starvation on men's bodies and psyches. Nathaniel Philbrick, a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association whose father is an expert on maritime literature, has written a ripping account of the Essex tragedy. Now the riveting real-life saga is once again available to American readers. Only in the 20th century, as the made-up whale tale eclipsed the true one, did it take on its classic status. "The reading of this wondrous story upon the landless sea," Melville wrote, "and so close to the very latitude of the shipwreck had a surprising effect on me." In 1851 Melville published Moby Dick. There he met William Henry Chase, the teenage son of Essex first mate Owen Chase, who lent Melville a copy of his father's published account of the tragedy. Herman Melville first heard the story in 1840, while he was crewing on a New Bedford whaler. McGuffey's Eclectic Fourth Reader, a popular grade school text, contained a condensed version of the tale. In the 19th century you could scarcely find an American schoolchild unfamiliar with these grisly details. Five were rescued at sea and three from a barren island where the whaleboats had paused one month into their journey. After nearly three months at sea, sustained only by meager rations of bread and water salvaged from the sinking ship, they began dining on one another, starting with the recently departed but ending up with at least one murder victim, chosen by lot. The castaways endured gales, shark attacks, starvation, even a brush with another angry whale. Fearing cannibalism in the Marquesas Islands, the nearest landfall some 1,200 miles away, the 21-man crew crowded into three small whaleboats and set out on a 3,000-mile voyage toward South America. The second blow stove in the Essex's hull, which immediately filled with water.
The whale resurfaced, wheeled and steamed toward the ship again, twice as fast this time. This last detail appears virtually unaltered in the climactic scene of Moby Dick Melville had read the first mate's account avidly.
The monster then passed beneath the ship, scraping the bottom and dislodging the false keel. The blow knocked every man off his feet and released a store of Galapagos tortoises, used for food during the long voyage, which went bumping over the deck. The crew attempted to turn the vessel, but the whale moved too fast and rammed the Essex. The whale dove and reemerged, now just 35 yards away and bearing down on the ship like a malevolent freight train.
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