by Nathaniel Philbrick
"The ordeal of the whale ship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century...this epic story inspired the climactic scene in Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick'. In 1819, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. It's twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months tested just how far humans could go in their battle against the sea, as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear."--jacket cover
