In the Heart of the Sea: The Epic True Story That Inspired Moby-Dick

by Nathaniel Philbrick

  Henderson, S., and Bostock T. “Coping Behavior after Shipwreck.” British Journal of Psychiatry^ (1977), pp. 543-62.

  Hewson, J. B. A History of'the Practice of Navigation. Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson, 1951.

  Hohman, Elmo P. The American Whaleman: A Study of Life and Labor in the Whaling Industry. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1928.

  Horton, James Oliver, and Lois E. Horton. Black Bostonians: Family

  Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North. New York. London: Holmes and Meier, 1979.

  Hubbard, Richard K. Boater's Bowditch: The Small Craft American Practical Navigator. Camden, Maine: International Marine, 1998.

  Hussey, Christopher Coffin. Talks About Old Nantucket. Nantucket. Mass.:n.p., 1901.

  Jackson, Michael. Galapagos: A Natural History. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 1993.

  Jensen, Cecil Barren. “The Story of Nantucket's Sperm Whale.” Historic Nantucket ( Summer 1998), pp. 5-8.

  Johannsen, Albert. The House of Beadle and Adams, vol. 2. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.

  Johnson, James Weldon. Black Manhattan. New York: Atheneum. 1972.

  Johnston, J. “Haunted by Memories.” Bereavement Care 9, no. 1 (1990), pp. 10-11.

  Keys, Ancel; Josef Brozek; Austin Henschel; Olaf Michelson; and Henry Longstreet Taylor. The Biology of Human Starvation (2 vols.) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1950.

  King, Joseph A. Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the Donner Party. Lafayette, Calif.: K&KPublications, 1992.

  Kinston, Warren, and Rachel Rosser. “Disaster: Effects of Mental and Physical State.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 18 (1974), pp. 437-56.

  Kobbe, Gustav. “The Perils and Romance of Whaling.” The Century MagazineXL, no. 4 (August 1890), pp. 509-25.

  Lancaster, Clay. Holiday Island: The Pageant of Nantucket's Hostelries and Summer Life from Its Beginnings to the Mid-twentieth Century. Nantucket, Mass.: Nantucket Historical Association, 1993.

  Langsdorff, George Heinrich. Remarks and Observations on a Voyage Around the World from 1803-1807. Edited by Richard A Price. Kingston, Ontario, and Fairbanks, Alaska: Limestone Press, 1993.

  Leach, John. Survival Psychology. New York: New York University-Press, 1994.

  , Leach, Robert, and Peter Gow. Quaker Nantucket: The Religious Community Behind the Whaling Empire. Nantucket, Mass.: Mill Hill Press, 1997.

  Leslie, Edward E. Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Storif-s of Castaways and Other Survivors. Boston and New York: HoughtonMifflin, 1988.

  Lestringant, Frank. Cannibals: The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal from. Columbus to Jules Verne. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997.

  Lever, Darcy. The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor, or a Key to the Leading of Rigging and to Practical Seamanship. 1819. Reprint, Boston: Charles E. Lauriat, 1938.

  Ludtke, Jen. Atlantic Peeks: An Ethnographic Guide to the Portuguese-Speaking Islands. Hanover, Mass.: Christopher Publishing House, 1989.

  Macy, Obed. The History of Nantucket. 1835. Reprint, Macys of Ellinwood: Ellinwood, Kansas, 1985.

  . “A Journal of the most remarkable events commenced and kept

  by Obed Macy,” vol. 3 (Nov. 13,1814-April 27,1822). NHA Collection 96.

  Macy, William F. The Nantucket Scrap-Basket. 1916. Reprint, Macys of Ellinwood: Ellinwood, Kansas, 1984.

  Macy, William H. There She Blows! Or The Whales We Caught and How WeDidlt. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1877.

  Maury, Matthew Fontaine. Wind and Cur rent Charts. Washington: U.S. Hydrographic Office, 1858.

  McGarvey, Stephen. “Obesity in Samoans and a Perspective on Its Etiology in Polynesians.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 53, no. 1(1991), pp. 1586S-94S.

  . “The Thrifty Gene Concept and Adiposity Studies in Biological

  Anthropology.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society (March 1994), pp. 29-42.

  McGee. W. J. “Desert Thirst as Disease.” Interstate Medical Journal (March 1906), pp. 279-300.

  McKee, Alexander. Death Raft: The Human Drama of the Medusa Shipwreck. New York: Scribner's, 1975.

  McLoughlin, Robert. Law and Order on Pitcairn Island. Government of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, andOeneo Islands, 1971.

  McNally, Robert. So Remorseless a Havoc: Of Dolphins, Whales and Men. Boston: Little, Brown, 1981.

  Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. 1851. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and the Newbury Library, 1988.

  . The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860. Evanston

  and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and the Newbury Library, 1987.

  . Clarel, A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. 1876.

  Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and the Newbury Library, 1991. -. Correspondence. Edited by Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago:

  Northwestern University Press and the Newbury Library, 1993. Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-

  1860. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1921.

  Mowatt, Farley. People of the Deer. Toronto: McClelland-Bantam, 1975. Murphey, Charles. A Journal of a Whaling Voyage on Board Ship

  Dauphin, of Nantucket. Mattapoisett, Mass.: Atlantic Publishing

  Co., 1877. Nickerson, Thomas. The Loss of the Ship “Essex” Sunk by a Whale and

  the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats. Nantucket, Mass.: Nantucket

  Historical Association, 1984.

  Nordhoff, Charles. Whaling and Fishing. New York: DoddMead, 1895. Oliver, Sandra L. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their

  Food, at Sea and Ashore, in the Nineteenth Century. Mystic, Conn.:

  Mystic Seaport Museum, 1995. Olmsted, Francis Allyn. Incidents of a Whaling Voyage. 1841. Reprint,

  Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Turtle, 1969. Olson, Charles. Call Me Ishmael. San Francisco: City Lights Books,

  1947. Philbrick, Charles. Nobody Laughs, Nobody Cries. New York, London:

  The Smith, 1976.

  Philbrick, Nathaniel. “The Nantucket Sequence in Crevecoeur's Let

  ters from an American Farmer.” New England Quarterly (Septem

  ber 1991), pp. 414-32.

  . “'Every Wave Is a Fortune': Nantucket Island and the Making

  of an American Icon.” New England Quarterly (September 1994).

  pp. 434-47.

  . Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890.

  . Nantucket, Mass.: Mill Hill Press, 1994.

  -. Abram 's Eyes: The Native American Legacy of Nantucket Is-

  land. Nantucket, Mass.: Mill Hill Press, 1998.

  Phinney, Joseph Warren. “Nantucket, Far Away and Long Ago.” Historic Nantucket (October 1985), pp 17-20.

  Poe, Edgar Allan. Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by Edward H. Davidson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956.

  Pommer, Henry F. “Herman Melville and the Wake of the Essex.” American Literature (November 1948), pp. 290-304.

  Porter, David. Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Frigate Essex. New York: Wiley and Halsted, 1822.

  Pratt, Addison. The Journals. Edited by S. George Ellsworth. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990.

  Putney, Martha S. Black Sailors: Afro-American Merchant Seamen and Whalemen Prior to the Civil War. New York, Westport, Conn., London: Greenwood Press, 1987.

  Radii-Weiss, T. “Man in Extreme Conditions: Some Medical and Psychological Aspects of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.” Psychiatry 46 (1983), pp. 259-69.

  Rawson, Claude. “Eating People.” Review in London Review of Books (January 24,1985), pp. 20-22.

  . “The Horror, the Holy Horror: Revulsion, Accusation and the

  Eucharist in the History of Cannibalism.” Review in Times Literary Supplement (October 31,1997), pp. 3-5.

  Read, Piers Paul. Alive!: The Story of the Andes Survivors. New York: Avon,1975.

  Rediker, Marcus. Bet
ween the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750. Cambridge, New York, Port Chester, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

  Rees, Abraham. Rees'NavalArchitecture, 1819-1820. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1970.

  Rice, D. W. “Sperm Whale.” In S. H. Ridgway and R. Harrison, eds., Handbook of Marine Mammals, vol. 4. London, San Diego: Academic Press, 1989.

  Roberts, Kenneth. Boon Island, Including Contemporary Accounts of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley. Edited by Jack Bales and Richard Warner. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1996.

  Robertson, Dougal. Survive the Savage Sea. New York, Washington: Praeger, 1974.

  . Sea Survival: A Manual. London: Paul Elek, 1975.

  Ronnberg, Erik A. R., Jr. To Build a Whaleboat: Historical Notes and a Modetmaker's Guide. New Bedford, Mass.: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1985.

  Sagan, Eli. Cannibalism: Human Aggression and Cultural Form. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

  Saunders, Ann. Narrative of the Shipwreck and Sufferings of Miss Ann Saunders. Providence: Z. S. Grossman, 1827.

  Savigny, J.-B. Henry, and Alexander Correard. Narrative of a Voyage to

  Senegal. Marlboro, Vt.: Marlboro Press, 1986. Sawtell, Clement Cleveland. The Ship Ann Alexander of New Bedford.

  1805-1851. Mystic, Conn.: Marine Historical Association, No. 40.

  1962. Sharp, Andrew. The Discovery of the Pacific Islands. New York, London:

  Greenwood Press, 1960. Simpson, A. W. Brian. Cannibalism and the Common Law: A Victorian

  Yachting Tragedy. London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press.

  1994.

  Slevin, Joseph Richard. The Galapagos Islands: A History of their Exploration. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences, 1959. Stackpole, Edouard A. Rambling Through the Streets and Lanes of Nan -

  tucket. Nantucket, Mass.: Inquirer and Mirror Press, 1947.

  . The Loss of the Essex, Sunk by a Whale in Mid-Ocean. Fal-

  mouth, Mass.: Kendall Printing, 1977. -. The Sea-Hunters: The Great Age of Whaling. Philadelphia: J. B.

  Lippincott: 1953. Starbuck, Alexander. The History of the American Whale Fishery.

  Waltham, Mass., n.p., 1878.

  . The History of Nantucket. 1924. Reprint, Rutland, Vermont:

  Charles E. Turtle, 1969. Stewart, George R. Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party.

  Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.

  Takada, Shiguro. Contingency Cannibalism: Superhardcore Survival-ism's Dirty Little Secret. Boulder, Co.: Paladin Press, 1999. Tannahill, Reay. Flesh and Blood: A History of the Cannibal Complex.

  New York: Stern and Day, 1975. Townsend, C. H. “The Galapagos Tortoise in Their Relation to the

  Whaling Industry: A Study of Old Logbooks.” Zoologica 4, no. 3

  (1925), pp. 55-135. Turner, Christy G., and Jacqueline A. Turner. Man Corn: Cannibalism

  and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest. Salt Lake City:

  University of Utah Press, 1998. Tyerman, Daniel, and George Bennet. Journal of Voyages. London:

  Frederick Westley, 1831. Van Dorn, William G. Oceanography and Seamanship. CentreviUe.

  Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1993. Vickers, Daniel. “The First Whalemen of Nantucket.” William and

  Mary Quarterly, Oct. 1983, pp. 560-83.

  Vickery, J. A., and Brooke, M. De L. “The Kleptoparastic Interactions Between Great Frigatebirds and Masked Boobies on Henderson Island, South Pacific.” The Condor 96 (1994), pp. 331-40.

  Ward, R. Gerard, ed. American Activities in the Central Pacific, 1790-1870, vols. 2 and 3. Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Gregg Press, 1967.

  Weilgart, Linda; Hal Whitehead; and Katherine Payne. “A Colossal Convergence.” American Scientist (May-June, 1996), pp. 278-87.

  Wharton, Donald P., ed. In the Trough of the Sea: Selected American Sea-Deliverance Narratives, 1610-1766. Westport, Conn., London: Greenwood Press, 1979.

  Whitehead, Hal. Voyage to the Whales. Post Mills, Vt.: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1991.

  . “The Behavior of Mature Male Sperm Whales on the Galapagos

  Breeding Grounds.” Canadian Journal of Zoology 71 (1993), pp. 689-99.

  . “Status of Pacific Sperm Whale Stock Before Modern Whal

  ing.” Reprinted in Whale Community^ (1995), pp. 407-12.

  “The Realm of the Elusive Sperm Whale.” National Geo-

  graphic (November 1995), pp. 56-73.

  Whitehead, Hal, and Linda S. Weilgart. “Moby's Click: Sperm Whale Underwater Sounds, Symphony Beneath the Sea.” Natural History (March 1991), pp. 64-66.

  . “The Sperm Whale: Social Females and Roving Males.” In

  Cetacean Societies, edited by J. Mann, R. C. Connor, P. Tyack, and H. Whitehead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.

  Whitney, Eleanor Noss; Corine Balog Cataldo; and Sharon Rady Rolfes. Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition. St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco: West Publishing, 1991.

  Wilkes, Charles. Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, vol. V. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1845.

  . Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, U.S. Navy,

  1798-1877. Washington: Department of the Navy, 1978.

  Worrall, Arthur J. Quakers in the Colonial Northeast. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1980.

  Worsley, F. A. Shackleton's Boat Journey. New York, London: Norton, 1977.

  Zimmer, Carl. At the Water's Edge: Macroevolution and the Transformation of Life. New York: Free Press, 1998.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  s

  incere thanks to Albert F. Egan, Jr., and Dorothy H. Egan; without their support over the last seven years through the Egan Foundation and the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies, I would have never been able to write this book. Thanks also to Margaret Moore Booker, who kept the Institute flourishing during my year-long leave of absence.

  For more than a decade the staff of the Nantucket Historical Association has assisted me in the exploration of the island's past. Thanks to Jean Weber, Betsy Lowenstein, Elizabeth Oldham, Aimee Newell, Cecil Barron Jensen, Rick Morcam, Jeremey Slavitz, Mary Woodruff, and everyone else at the N.H.A., both past and present. The Nantucket Atheneum is another indispensible island institution that provided me with a vital link to libraries throughout the region and the country; special thanks to Charlotte Maison, Betsy Tyler, Sharon Carlee, and Chris Turrentine. Patty Hanley, librarian at the Maria Mitchell Science Library, was also a huge help. I am aslo indebted to island bookstore owner Mimi Beman, who has been a tireless supporter of my work. The staff of Mystic Seaport and the faculty of the Williams-Mystic Program were a constant source of knowledge and expertise throughout the writing of this book; thanks to James Carlton, Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, James McKenna, Katrina Bercaw, Donald Treworgy, Glenn Gordinier, Glenn Grasso, and Don Sinetti. In addition to speaking with me about topics ranging from whalemen's songs to scrimshaw, Stuart Frank, Director of the Kendall Whaling Museum, kindly offered me the use of the museum's scholar's quarters. Thanks to Michael Dyer for guiding me through the Kendall's library and providing copies of articles at a mo-

  ment's notice. Michael Jehle and Judith Downey of the New Bedford Whaling Museum were also extremely helpful.

  Nantucketers Chuck Gieg and David Cocker helped me sort out the navigational questions associated with the story; I owe whatever verisimilitude is contained in my account of the Essex's knockdown to Chuck's firsthand experience of a similar catastrophe. Thanks to Diana Brown for sharing with me her grandfather's memories of Captain Pollard. Dr. Tim Lepore and especially Beth Tornovish provided countless articles and insights into the physiology of starvation and dehydration. Robert Leach could not have been more generous in sharing with me a lifetime of research into the island's Quaker community. Melville and Essex expert Thomas Heffernan of Adelphi University patiently listened to my musings about the personalities of
Pollard and Chase. Hal White-head of Dalhousie University helped me better understand the behavior of sperm whales. Ted Ducas of Wellesley College spoke to me about the physics of whales and commented on Chapter 5. Model maker Mark Sutherland and marine artist Len Tantillo shared their knowledge of early nineteenth-century whaleships, while naval architect Peter Smith at Hinkley Yachts provided a quantitative analysis of what wouldhappen when a whale rammed a ship. Claude Rawson of Yale University talked to me about cannibalism. Stephen McGarvey of Brown University introduced me to the field of evolutionary biology. Steven Jones helped sort out several issues concerning the economics of whaling while Wes Tiffney of the University of Massachusetts-Boston Nantucket Field Station spoke to me about the island's natural history. My cousins Steve Philbrick and Ben Philbrick taught me about sheep-raising and boat construction, respectively. Island historian Robert Mooney and Nantucket newspaper expert Lee Rand Burne directed me to several important articles from the Nantucket Inquirer. During his summer in the Galapagos Islands, Ned Claflin steered me to several valuable resources, as did Galapagos expert Richard Kremer. Mary Sicchio at the Cape Cod Community College Library helped me with the geneology of the Nickerson family. Lament Thomas at the University of Bridgeport provided research assistance, as did Sally O'Neil, who searched archives in England and Australia. Nathaniel Clapp located materials for me in Providence, Rhode Island. John Turrentine made available his copy of Thomas Chappel's extremely rare account of the Essex disaster. Jamie Jones offered insights into the collective psyche of an island community

  while Edie Ray, Tracy Plaut, and Tracy Sundell recounted their memories of the sperm whale that washed up on Nantucket.

  Special thanks to my Nantucket friend and neighbor Tom Congdon, whose enthusiasm and keen editorial judgment were an immense help, particularly in the early stages of the project. Gregory Whitehead provided essential input on the first draft. Marc Wortman helped me with several medical-related research questions and also read portions of the manuscript. Others who read and commented on the manuscript include my parents, Thomas and Marianne Philbrick, Susan Beegel, Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Glenn Grasso, Thomas Heffernan, Stuart Frank, Michael Jehle, Chuck Gieg, Beth Tornovish, Tim Lepore, Cecil Barron Jensen, Betsy Lowenstein, Howie Sanders, Richard Green, Rick Jaffa, Richard Johnson, Peter Gow, and Richard Ellis. All errors, though, are mine and mine alone.