In the Heart of the Sea
In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage to hunt whales. Fifteen months later, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale.
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2011–2025years
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What Hacker News says
- According to Kindle I read 24 books.
The best were:
- The Eagle and the Hart, on Richard II and Henry IV
- In the Heart of the Sea, on a whale ship disaster that inspired moby dick
- The Siege, on a hostage taking at the Iranian embassy in London
Love narrative nonfiction.
- In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Story of the survivors of a sunken whale ship after a sperm whale attack. A source of inspiration for Moby Dick.
- The Poincaré Conjecture by Donal O'Shea
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Also, In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. It is a non-fiction account of the wreck of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, that was inexplicably "stove by a whale", and lost at sea - an unheard of occurrence at the time. The crew was forced to survive in open boats for weeks, and resorted to cannibalism.
This was the story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick.
The book is both a survival story and an investigation of the Nantucket whaling industry and whaling in general, as well as the social and economic background.
- If you're interested in the true story that inspired Moby Dick, read In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's the story of the Nantucket whaleship Essex that was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale.
- Great tip. I hadn't heard of that museum and will have to check it out. If anyone else is interested in whaling, particularly Nantucket's past sperm whale industry, "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" is a great read.
