In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a book by American writer Nathaniel Philbrick about the loss of the whaler Essex in the Pacific Ocean in 1820. The book was published by Viking Press on May 8, 2000, and won the 2000 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
How historically accurate is "in the heart of the sea"?
It is this story that Nathaniel Philbrick brings to life in his historically accurate, and narratively compelling, In The Heart of the Sea. Philbrick, a maritime historian, has also published the excellent, and very short, guide—Why Read Moby-Dick?
What is the story behind "In the Heart of the Sea"?
A recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick. In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance.
Owen Chase (October 7, 1797 – March 7, 1869) was first mate of the whaler Essex, which sank in the Pacific Ocean on November 20, 1820, after being rammed by a sperm whale.
In the end, eight men lived, being picked up by passing ships as they drifted into more occupied waters, and they returned to their lives. A few never spoke of the ordeal again, while others chose to share their story, whether it was after months or decades of silence.
The men spent over three months at sea and had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Captain Pollard and Charles Ramsdell were discovered gnawing on the bones of their shipmates in one boat. Owen Chase, Lawrence and Nickerson also survived to tell the tale. In all, seven sailors were consumed.
The sinking of the Essex, a whaling ship out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick. On November 20, 1820, the American whaling ship Essex was rammed by a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and sunk. The incident inspired Herman Melville's famous novel Moby Dick.
The master of the Two Brothers, George Pollard Jr., in his first trial as a whaling captain, had survived the wreck of the Essex, stove by a whale in the South Pacific. Five survivors were rescued off the coast of South America after a harrowing open-boat voyage of three thousand miles in ninety-four days.
The three men, Chappel, Weeks and Wright, who had been rescued from Henderson Island continued to work as crew members of their rescue ship Surry before making their way back to England and the United States. Chappel retired from sailing and became a missionary; he died of plague fever in Timor.
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a book by American writer Nathaniel Philbrick about the loss of the whaler Essex in the Pacific Ocean in 1820.
The 19-year-old Holland, who has been cast as the next Spider-Man, says this is first time he has been involved in a film as big as “Heart of the Sea” but not the first time he has been in one with a lot of water.
Yet in Howard's film, the whale that comes calling on the Essex measures 95 feet long, weighing "approximately 80 tons, with a tail spanning 20 feet… by contrast, the other male sperm whales they encounter measure just over half as long, at about 52 feet," the production notes state.
Owen Chase, the first mate, wrote his account of the disaster within months of his rescue, while Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy, waited half a century before he put pen to paper.
While the story of the Essex tragedy demonstrates the daring, bravery, inventiveness, strength, and intelligence of 19th century whalers, it also quite effectively draws a picture of the Nantucket whaling industry—in its heyday second to none in the world—as an exemplar of the capitalistic greed that would make the ...
What is the main idea in the movie In the Heart of the Sea?
You could say the film is about humankind's collective, slowly dawning realization that whales are not big fish but intelligent mammals, and that the whaling industry was (and still is) engaged in interspecies genocide—a notion teased out in shots of the vengeful whale and other members of its pod floating peacefully ...
Some elements of the Essex tragedy are particularly fraught. First, while most of the men who died succumbed to starvation, one did not; 18-year-old Owen Coffin was shot after the drawing of lots. Second, a disproportionate number of the earliest crew members to die were men of color.
How old was Nickerson when the voyage aboard the Essex began?
Nickerson made his first sea voyage in 1819, at the age of fourteen, on the ill-fated whaler Essex, which sailed from Nantucket Harbor. A whale rammed and sank Essex on November 20, 1820.
That encounter set in motion the tale of how the score of sailors aboard the whaling ship Essex became lost at sea — some forced to eat one another for survival — and how their story inspired an author to write a classic piece of American literature that would build its legend.
Pequod or Pequot may refer to: The Pequod, or Pequot, a Native American people of Connecticut. Pequod (Moby-Dick), a whaleship that appears in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Pequod Glacier. Pequod Mountain, in British Columbia, Canada.
What happened to Captain Pollard in the Heart of the Sea?
For his part, Captain Pollard was rescued a day after the Two Brothers sank. He returned to Nantucket, where he settled into a sedate, quiet and decidedly nonseafaring life, though other sailors quietly deemed him a “Jonah,” or star-crossed mariner. He eventually took a job as the town's night watchman.
Essex, American whaling ship that was rammed by a sperm whale on November 20, 1820, and later sank. Although all 20 crewmen initially survived, only 8 were rescued following an arduous journey that devolved into cannibalism. The sinking inspired the climactic scene in Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851).
They are named after the waxy substance—spermaceti—found in their heads. The spermaceti is an oil sac that helps the whales focus sound. Spermaceti was used in oil lamps, lubricants, and candles.
Filming. Principal photography began in September 2013 in London and at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England. It was also shot on location on the island of La Gomera (plus some scenes on Lanzarote) in the Canary Islands, Spain.
