Recommended by
- Richard Branson — Listed in Richard Branson's own 'My Top 65 Books To Read In A Lifetime' published on Virgin.com source ↗
Summary
Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 National Book Award-winning history of the whaleship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1820 — the real-life event that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The crew survived in three small whaleboats for 90 days, crossing thousands of miles of open ocean while resorting to cannibalism before the remaining eight men were rescued. Philbrick uses the Essex story to explore the brutal realities of the Nantucket whaling industry, the limits of human endurance, and the moral compromises people make when survival is at stake.