Revenge of the Whale - The Book

This is the cover of the juvenile/teen edition of
Phibrick's In the Heart of the Sea.

I just finished this book: "Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex." It is the juvenile/teen version of Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, which was the basis for the recent movie of the same name. As I mentioned in my post about the movie, I was inspired to look for the book but all copies in my local library were already signed out. So I settled for the "teen" version (the Scholastic Books web page indicates that the reading level is grade 8.5).

This was perfect for me: a little bite that I breezed through in a week. You could probably sit down and get through this in a couple hours if you wanted. This version had two sections of photographs (8 pages each), five illustrations, and two maps. The book had 164 pages (including a 3-page index and a 1 page list for "further reading") plus 12 preface pages.

The last sentence of the book calls the story of the Essex" a tragedy that happens to be one of the greatest true stories ever told." Here is the summary from the front flap of the dust jacket:

"On November 20, 1820, the unthinkable happened: The whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry whale. In minutes, the twenty-man crew (several of whom were only teenagers) found themselves stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in three leaky boats with minimal supplies and little hope."

"Three months later, two of the boats were rescued off the coast of South America. The  castaways had sailed over 4,500 miles from the site of the disaster, an incredible distance. Bot of the twenty men, only eight survived."

Reading the book revealed many discrepancies with the movie. For example, the movie used a framing device of Herman Melville interviewing one of the survivors in preparation for writing Moby-Dick. As far as I can determine, this never happened. The movie also shows one black man survive but the book indicates that none of the blacks made it back.

One of the haunting aspects of the book for me was the deadly ramifications of some the decisions that were made. These decisions were made based on the crew's best information but if the officers were better trained then they might have made different choices that could have resulted in more of the crew surviving. That has got me wondering about what well intentioned decisions I have made throughout my life that have steered me to failures I did not want or intend. Sometime I feel like I am drifting in the ocean hoping to be rescued but knowing that it is unlikely. Just have to keep sailing and trust that God will guide you through.

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Links:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/revenge-whale#cart/cleanup

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2015/12/revenge-of-whale.html

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Written Sunday 27 December 2015