In the Heart of the Sea

The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

By: Nathaniel Philbrick

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2000

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819 the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with 20 crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific, the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than 90 days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, and disease and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.

Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents, including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy, and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.

©2000 Nathaniel Philbrick (P)2000 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Fascinating...One of our country's great adventure stories...when it comes to extremes, In the Heart of the Sea is right there." (The Wall Street Journal)

"A book that gets in your bones...Philbrick has created an eerie thriller from a centuries old tale....Scrupulously researched and eloquently written...it would have earned Melville's admiration." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Spellbinding." (Time)

Audio must have been fixed

Any additional comments?

Many of the audible reviews noted problems with the sound / editing. These must have been corrected, as I took a chance and used a credit on it, and the audio sounded perfectly fine. Scott Brick was a great narrator.

Wonderful Nonfiction Tale/Horrible Mech. Editing

This is a fantastic, true tale of the Whaler Essex, its fate against an angry whale and the challenges facing the survivors. Amazing story. Well read by the narrator.

The biggest flaw is the mechanical editing. Horribly spliced. Sections seem to run into each other, and volume levels are confusion. For such a fantastic story, carefully read, this is a sad and sloppy treatment of the story.

Other than that, a great listen.

THE LARGEST TOOTHED WHALES IN EXISTENCE

I prefer Historical Fiction over History, but with Philbrick I make an exception. This is my fifth book by Philbrick and they all have been very readable and informative. This book would make a great companion to Moby Dick. NP always picks interesting topics. I started with Mayflower which gave me a complete new outlook on the history of New Amsterdam, I'm sorry I mean New York. My favorite is The Last Stand, which is about Custer.

This is a history on Sperm Whaling and on Nantucket. Among other things I was surprised to find out that a lot of captains of whaling ships were in their mid twenties. Through years of tv watching, I figured them to be old white haired men. I believe that I felt more in the boat with the whalers in this book, then I did in Moby Dick and I really liked Moby Dick. I think NP does a great job of explaining just how dangerous this type of job was and how terrifying these huge beast could be. It becomes obvious that the main reason most whaling captains were young, was cause they did not live long enough to get old.

One indirect sad truth that NP really does not talk about that much, was how many whales there were back in those days. Nantucket got into whaling, because of the of amount whales they could see from shore. In the beginning they could go out and catch one and still be insight of the island. Later they were traveling all the way to the pacific.

If the subject interest you at all, you will enjoy this.

Do not worry about FOSB, fear of Scott Brick, he does well in this. The production was a little weird. At times he sounds like he is talking through a cheerleaders megaphone. Sometimes the change from one paragraph to another is extreme and sounds like they squashed the recording to make the recording shorter, like some radio stations do to programs, so they can get in more commercials, but it is not bad enough to detract.

Amazing True Story-and Appropriate Ending

The book is really an important history of the start of the whaling business in Nantucket, and an incledible story of perseverance by the men who undertook this profession (even though to do so meant they turned to eating each other.) True, most of them did not survive the ordeal after their boat was rammed by a Sperm Whale, and the few who did survive didn't really have great lives afterwards. Maybe there was a message to those men and others like them- to maybe think about what they were doing to these magnificent mammals of the ocean- killing them by the thousands for their bottom line- and diminishing their numbers forever in the future - never to be completely replaced. As is often the case, men kill not because they have to, but because they can, and usually against defeneless animals who want nothing more than to be left to themselves. In the end, the men got what they probably deserved.

Fascinating history, not for the squeamish

Any additional comments?

The book is mostly about the whaling industry in Nantucket, Massachusetts and the dangers it entailed. Much background is given on the work of whaling, the mindset of the island residents and sailors, and the viciousness of the sea in the early 19th century. I enjoyed the background information on whaling ships and the hardships and victories of their crews. “Wooden ships and iron men.”

Scott Brick was an excellent choice as narrator and is going on my favorites list.

Be aware that only the first 17 of 35 chapters of this audiobook are the actual story. The rest of the ‘chapters’ (three hour’s worth) are the notes that apply to those chapters. This is where a written version of the book has the advantage; reading the notes of a good non-fiction book can sometimes be very enjoyable and lead you to more reading. However, listening to the narrator read these notes is not much fun.

The story gets quite gruesome at times, as can be predicted. Starvation and cannibalism are described in heartbreaking detail, let alone the job of butchering whales.

What a Great Book!!

This story is epic. It's an amazing story and a piece of history that should be heard. This book is so great.

What is it like to become lost at sea?

Author Nathaniel Philbrick did his homework giving a well rounded view of the times and culture surrounding the whaling business and Nantucket Island in particular. The Captain and First Mate initially appear very two dimensional. As the story progresses the author brings them to life by comparing and contrasting their historical journals with those of their shipmates and other historical data. I felt like I was looking through a time portal viewing clips of events. The telling is more high tragedy than high adventure. This did not make the book less interesting, but more so. Nathaniel did a phenomenal job reviewing the ethics of survival and survivor's guilt.

Get the Scott Brick version ( unabridged)

Listen to several ( more than 5 )of Scott Brick narrations. This is more of a straightforward reading, considering it is a non-fiction book. He does some character voices to emphasize points in the narrative. His narration just seems more lively, more passionate, than his fiction readings. I have not listen the abridged version, but looking at the total time, you lose half the story. Hope this helps.

Better than Melville

This is a well written story of a famous and particular whaling voyage, one that was famous in it's time and was likely the inspiration for Melville's "Moby Dick". Until recently the account that dominated knowledge of the voyage was written by the first mate Owen Chase. But an account written by the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, surfaced a few years back; it provides more and different reports that cleared up many questions.

Nathaniel Philbrick interleaves the various accounts of the Essex, along with other extensively research descriptions of Nantucket, the Quakers, and the whaling industry. I titled this review "Better than Melville" because Moby Dick tries to do something similar, but Philbrick has produced a more compelling narrative.

The narration was excellent.

The only negative was that some chapters seemed to start a sentence or two into the chapter; some kind of technical glitch. A bit frustrating, but don't let it stop you from listening.

grim but true tail

this audio book was so much better than the movie. showed the inaccuracies of the movie version to provide a good historical perspective.