Anyone ever read about this (especially anyone out Nantucket way)?
I'm kind of a sucker for human survival stories, and this one is a doozy. The sinking of this whaleboat, about a thousand miles to the northwest of Easter Island, by an enraged sperm whale captivated the Western World in the early 1800s. I just happened across the book (pretty much the definitive version of the story, based on research of two first-hand accounts) at a church's garage sale and decided to give it a shot. Not the most well-written book I've ever gone through, but without a doubt one of the most engaging tales.
I would in particular invite Gibbs to read through this (and any other book in which old mariners go through near-limitless forms of hell on earth), as I've always suspected his love for the sea and sailing was based purely on "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and, to put it mildly, there's definitely a darker side to the subject.
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5 comments:
Shiver me timbers! It sounds like a whale of a tale.
Sounds like part of the inspiration for Moby Dick, another story that shows the dark side of the sea-faring life.
He could also watch Master and Commander which shows how shitty life was like in that time period.
Also found of human survival stories - Into Thin Air, and the one about the ill-fated expedition to the South Pole whose name I am forgetting....trapped in the ice for months, eventually leave in small boats, land on an island, leave most people behind, sail more, arrive on the wrong side of the island they aimed for, hike over the island and eventually find help. The people they left behind are rescued and I think everyone lived. Unbelievable.
The Endurance, by Caroline Alexander. Great.
You're thinking about Jon Krakauer (sp?) for Into Thin Air (which I did read--an amazing tale, and much better-written than "Essex"), and Shackleford for the South Pole deal, for which I have not read more than a summary account (and for which there was an Imax, which I also have not seen).
Moby Dick was indeed inspired by the tale. In fact, Melville actually met the son of the first mate from the Essex and modeled Ahab after him (down to the whale-obsession). Melville also gained first-hand experience on a whaleboat in the years that followed. Would definitely like to read M.D. One other amazing human survival story, for which I don't know if there was ever a book written-this guy for which there was a special during the 2000 Olympics. He was an Olympian long-distance runner in 1940, then served in the Pacific theater. His boat was sunk and he was adrift ina lifeboat for weeks, surviving near-starvation and shark attacks. Then, he had to spend a year or two in a horrible Japanese prison camp enduring unbelievable torture. Incredible human perserverence.
Anyway, in the arena of literature, I do want to get onto Moby Dick, but I felt like something a little less heavy, so I just picked up my 2nd Sherlock Holmes novel, "A Study in Scarlet" (actually the book where Holmes is introduced). Definitely fast & fun reading.
I've been thinking about doing a thing that Sharon is doing, which is to start an excel spreadsheet of the books I read, along with author, date published, pages, and my brief thoughts.
I wish that I knew how to read. My students are doing a good job teaching me, but I don't know my sight words yet. :)
I'd recommend getting writing down first, dog balls.
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