Notes on In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

I just finished reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. It was a gory, wild tale of the Nantucket whaling ship attacked by a whale, where only a few sailors barely survived to tell the tale. The story was riveting and unbelievable and was the inspiration for Melville's Moby Dick.

It really got me thinking about the intensity of human clinging to life and ability to withstand extreme conditions. I can't believe how unlucky and lucky the survivors were at the same time: the captain managed to be on TWO whaling boats that sunk over the course of his career and yet managed to be saved by randomly passing ships. I was impressed with the sailors' abilities to rig up their lifeboats for sailing thousands of miles and to figure out where in the world they were without GPS/radio/etc.

The in-depth details of whale and tortoise killings (as well as the cannibalism) were my least favorite parts of the book, though they showed me how deeply the author researched the story. I was sad to read about how xenophobia, racism, and disrespect for animals got these sailors into such trouble.

Overall, it was a very entertaining story, and below are some of my notes.

Preface
Whaling industry
Inspiration for Melville and moby dick

1 Nantucket island
Superstitious about the sea
Whale oil
Separate island culture
Equal pay for blacks 
Minimal pay for years of work with only months at home 

2 countdown 
Not following safety procedures in storm
Aggressive decision making 
No margin for error 

3 first blood
Special language for spotting whale
There she blows
Bloodlust for whale
Minuscule food provisions 

4
Mysteries in the Galapagos
Problems on the ship
Collecting tortoises for food and oil like with whales

5
Enormous size of pacific
No caution in whale boats
Noticed whale near them but didn't try to avoid
Whale rammed ship
Largest brain of any mammal
Echolocation and clicks to communicate

6 the plan
Avoided unknown islands like Tahiti which they were afraid of but much closer to them
Suspicions of unknown
Xenophobia
Democratic leadership worse in disasters than authoritarian

7 at sea
Daily rituals and log keeping for sanity
Salvaged items and rigged up ghetto mast
Damaged food provisions and thirst
Prayer meetings
Instinct to keep clinging together
Could've stopped at Society Islands but decided to go on at sea

8 centering down

9 there is land
Found island
Afraid of savages
Had to leave island again for real settlement

10 whisper of necessity
Deaths to starvation

11 games of chance
Leadership in impossible circumstances
Shackleton
Narrow hopes bound us to life (job)
Casting lots to kill one to save others: one for who would die and who would kill 
But games of chance not allowed for Quakers

12 in the eagle's shadow
Active passive approach to survival
Give yourself up to what happens
Found ship randomly sailing nearby when we're just about to die

13 homecoming
Both ships saved by other ships
Those left on island saved as well
Public judging those who resorted to cannibalism
Saved sailors returning home and telling story
Went back to sailing

14 consequences
Lunar observations to determine longitude
New ship hit coral reef
Had to be saved again
Melville joined as sailor and read account of Essex
Sailors coming back to new children of theirs
Huge fire in Nantucket
Whale population resilient but became angrier
Another boat broken by whale in same waters

Epilogue: bones
Beached whale
Bones are all that are left

---