In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three...

I saw the whale ahead of us, coming with twice his ordinary speed, and with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him and his course toward us was marked by a white foam which he made with continual violent thrashing of his tail, his head was about half out of water and in that way he came upon and again struck the ship." An angry whale rams and destroys a whale ship in 1820. The helpless crew stranded 1500...

Discover the amazing true story behind the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick and the new feature film Heart of the Sea. A tragic yet riveting narration of life and death and man against the elements, Beneath the Heart of the Sea is an extreme account of shipwreck survival.On the morning of November 20,1820, in the Pacific Ocean 2,000 miles from the coast of South America, an enraged sperm whale rammed the Nantucket whaleship Essex. As the...

Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex, speaks about his work on the historical event which inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick.

The incredible true story of the epic adventure and harrowing disaster that inspired "Moby Dick."--Page 4 of cover.