In the Heart of the Sea: January 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013

Chapter 14

This is entirely based on the lives of the men after their rescue. I found it totally surprising that all of the men went back on whale boats. Pollard even captained another ship. That journey didn’t fare well to all either. On a particularly rough night his ship was destroyed on a protruding rock. Luckily they had traveled with another ship and were brought aboard by morning. After that Pollard was deemed and utterly unlucky man and he simply joined the neighborhood watch for Nantucket. Owen Chase had five children and continued on whaling expeditions until he was forty-one, at which point he retired for good to care for his children. Thomas Nickerson went on a few more whaling trips then settled in Nantucket became an inn keeper. I thought it was out of the total blue that they went back to do the very thing that had put them in such a life threatening situation.

Chapter 13

These men had been rescued and were on the way home. Just days before, Nantucket, got the news of Captain Pollard’s survival and the man he was with. He figured it was unlikely any of the others had survived. With this news, Nantucket erupted in excitement when three men, who were assumed to be dead, arrived home. However there was no talk of the event at all until Captain Pollard returned home two months later after being deemed fit to travel in South America. I thought it was odd that nothing was said no reports were taken until after the captain returned home.

Chapter 12

At this point in time the men’s luck was close to running out. Only a ship with a kind crew would be able to save them at the point they were at. That is exactly what they stumbled upon. After three months without proper nutrition the men were basically live skeletons they had no fat to speak of, a considerable amount of their muscles atrophied, and shrunken internal organs. Once upon the ship the men were given small portions of tapioca pudding. (pg. 184) When I read this I found it very odd, my first thought was “Why tapioca pudding? That’s odd,” but after thinking about it I realized that the nutritional value of tapioca would be tremendous and rather easy to digest.

Chapter 11

The first breath of cannibalism among the crew is brought to light. By this point Chase’s boast had been separated from the group and the remaining two boats were close to their end of provisions. One man died and rather than dispose of his body immediately they say and looked at it for a while. Finally someone piped up with the option of eating the man, since no one opposed they appointed the cook to prepare the meat. The book went into specific detail about how in an attempt to make it feel less like butchering a human he cut off the head, hands, and feet, also he skinned the body. (pg. 170) Once the men started eating they couldn't stop. This made my completely sick to my stomach! Honestly, when reading this I was holding down vomit. I know that this was a situational thing that only someone in that particular position could feel and they would do whatever to survive, but this just made me ill. Also this was the most ironic part of the book to me because they were going to double the length of their trip to avoid cannibals.

Chapter 10

This chapter focuses on the issue of hunger yet again. They decided, after what they collected on the island was gone, to split the rations partially in half again. The captain and mates decided it would be all but a death sentence to cut water anymore, but they did, however, cut the bred to one and a half ounces a piece. (pg. 163) I personally didn't see the need for this. If they had stayed on the island to build up strength and supplies then left with more provisions then they may have been in better shape. Also in this chapter the first two men died; Matthew Joy the previously sick second mate and the extremely malnourished African American Richard Peterson. Both of these men had what the other crew members could spare tied to their legs and were thrown in to the open ocean.

Chapter 9

At this point the men thought an island would be salvation and for a while it was. The men had spotted an island made of coral, and after cautious inspection they landed on the beach. The first thought on everyone’s mind was water. They found crevasses that had just drops left in them from the last rain, but over were originally unsuccessful, however they did happen to be able to find food. They ate native birds, fish, crab, and what flora they could find. The search for water on the following day proved to be more successful. The men found a spring. It was only accessible at low tide all other times it was covered by the harsh salt water of the Pacific Ocean. They stayed on the beach for a few more days, but after filling all containers that would hold water they set out again. They put a large stone in the bottom of each boat and brought fire wood so they could stay warm in to coming weeks of winter and also to cook their food. (pg. 149) However, when boarding three men did not join the rest of the crew they elected to stay behind and take they chances on the island. I thought this was the smartest decision possible. They found a spring they had access to fresh water and even if they decided it was a hassle have to wait for the tide they could have easily dug a well with the whaling tools they had.

Chapter 8

This is when the men started feeling the effects of hunger and the officers decided to cut provisions in half to one cup of water a day and three ounces of bread. This took a tremendous toll on the men; they were weak and stuck in an area of no wind. Without a breeze they had to row to move. (pg. 129) With this grueling task and lack of food they were even weaker and had little motivation to continue pushing. Also by this point the second mate is very sick and no one is sure how much longer he will last. In my opinion when Chase and Pollard noticed his deterioration they should have appointed a new commander of boat because he was barely able to give out rations let alone guard them.

Chapter 7

The men notice that their ships are not equipped to take on the open ocean. Several start leaking and creative thinking must be used to fix them. In addition as if it were some cruel joke the Captain’s boat was attacked by an orca, or killer whale. (pg. 113) No one was hurt in the ordeal, but the boat was a pretty beat up and the crew rather shaken. I found this to be one of the two most ironic parts of the book. Not only were they attacked once but a second time.

Chapter 6

Then men then made plans. They were desperately scared of the rumors of the cannibals on the islands to the west so they decided to set course for the South American coast. Riding the trade winds south with their make shift sails they were on their way to what they hoped to be a speedy trip back to civilization. Each boat was given enough bread and water to last thirty days and two tortoises. (pg. 99) With these provisions they hoped to make it to America quickly. I personally think this plan was hopelessly flawed. The distance was over 2,000 miles whereas they could have taken their chances with the cannibals and been on land sooner. Also they would have realized there were no cannibals anymore.

Chapter 5

The title of this chapter is The Attack. Simply by this title one would know that this is the turning point in the story. As the three teams are hunting a pod of sperm whales, Owen and Nickerson’s boat was damaged and they had to head back to the ship to make repairs. While on the ship an enormous sperm whale rammed the boat twice leading to the sinking of the Essex. The whale that attacked was estimated, by Chase and Nickerson, to be eighty-five feet long, an absolute massive sperm whale. (pg 87) All the men survived this attack and starts salvaging what they could from the wreck.

Chapter 4

By this point in the journey the men have rounded Cape Horn, the tip of South America, and are moving up to the coast of South America. They were rather productive off the coast of Peru. They had caught and butchered eleven whales in a month and a half thus averaging about one whale every five days. Once moving from the coast of Peru they sailed to the Galapagos Islands to harvest Galapagos tortoises for their cherished meat. I found this very interesting because I had always thought of tortoises as a species that wasn't abundant or hunted for meat. The way they were descried though, they were everywhere on the islands. (pg. 78) The first mate Chase recorded that they harvested at least 180 over Galapagos natives. By the end of the chapter the ship filled with the live tortoises along with the crew headed in into the open ocean.

Chapter 3

In this chapter the crew got their first “taste” of whale blood. They were able to harvest their first whale off the coast of Argentina. It goes on to describe rather vividly they procedure in processing a sperm whale. (pg. 49) The blubber is cut up and thrown a board to be packed in large blubber barrels; next the massive head was removed to collect the oil in the cranial cavity. Though interesting, I found this rather brutal. I do realize that it is no different than hunting deer or caribou, but I just found it disgusting the amount of pleasure the men found it burning the excess blubber.

Chapter 2

In this chapter the reader is exposed to the Essex and her crew. When a ship would leave port in Nantucket, it was a public event. The crew would have to get all of the sails up and ropes in appropriate places, a task that could be challenging under pressure for an experienced crew. This crew, however, was not experienced; the launch was a total humiliation for the Captain. During the launch the captain is to give no orders or assist in any way the launch was left to the clumsy crew. (pg. 29) The crew was twenty-one men, including the captain and mates, and again there is a hierarchy. Firstly the first and second mates, Owen Chase and Matthew Joy, chose their teams of men to do the shifts of work on the ship. They started of picking the Nantucket natives, following the islanders the white men from the main land were picked next. Finally, like the little kids no one wants to be on their team in dodge ball, the African Americans were chosen next. Yet again I found this odd, it shouldn’t matter where the person is from or what color they are if they are better able to do the work then they should be picked first. Yes, I do realize that in this time the African American’s were rarely free, equality wouldn’t be heard, but the more hard working, able members on a shift would get the desired amount of work done faster. After the ship shift teams were chosen the whale perusing teams were chosen next. Captain Pollard along with Chase and Joy participated in this pick, and yes, the picks were done in the exact same order with six men in each whale boat and three to stay aboard the Essex to tend to the ship.

Chapter 1

This chapter opens the reader up to the lifestyle of the whalers. Nantucket in the early 1800s is a booming whaling community. It would seem to an outsider that everyone, including women and children, breaths the whaling industry. (pg. 2) This chapter also describes the hierarchy of the island. It is a very religious island, mostly Quaker, for this reason I found it odd that there was such a profound hatred of others by the Quakers. Firstly the people that were not lucky enough to be the descendants of the original settlers fell short of those who were. In addition if a person was not Quaker they were all but blatantly avoided by the Quaker community. Finally if a man was not a whaler, had never been a whaler, or never intended to be a whaler, he automatically dropped in social standing. I thought this was really odd because whenever I had previously heard of Quakers I always thought of them as caring abolitionists who would risk their own safety to help others. This community, however, was vastly different before the Essex left port, and for years after the survivors’ return. All of the African American sailors aboard any whaling ship got lower quality food and were still segregated from the rest of the crew members.

Nantucket Whaling Museum Video

Preface

Firstly this is a non-fiction book and it is written based on the journals of those who survived the tragic experience, the main three being; Captain George Pollard, first mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson. In a lot of books the preface is skipped, but skipping the preface in this book might lead you to read the book without all information on the book gathered. The preface starts talking about two severely malnourished men sucking the marrow out of human bones. At that point I thought about putting the book down indefinitely, but I decided it would be better since I started I better finish.