In the Heart of the Sea: The Epic True Story that Inspired ‘Moby Dick’. Nathaniel Philbrick
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In the Heart of the Sea
The Epic True Story that Inspired Moby Dick
Nathaniel Philbrick
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000
Copyright © Nathaniel Philbrick 2000
Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint excerpts from Lord Weary’s Castle by Robert Lowell. Copyright 1947 and renewed 1972 by Robert Lowell. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
Frontispiece, images on chapter openings, and tailpiece by David Lazarus.
Ship diagrams © 2000 L. F. Tantillo.
Maps on pages 46–7 and 179 by Jeffrey L. Ward
Motion picture artwork © 2015 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.
Nathaniel Philbrick asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006531203
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780007381814
Version: 2015-11-16
To Melissa
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou has overthrown them that rose up against thee: Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
—EXODUS 15:7–8
This is the end of the whaleroad and the whale
Who spewed Nantucket bones in the thrashed swell…
This is the end of running on the waves;
We are poured out like water. Who will dance
The mast-lashed master of Leviathans
Up from this field of Quakers in their unstoned graves?
—ROBERT LOWELL,
‘The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket’
Table of Contents
CHAPTER FOUR – The Lees of Fire
CHAPTER EIGHT – Centering Down
CHAPTER TEN – The Whisper of Necessity
CHAPTER ELEVEN – Games of Chance
CHAPTER TWELVE – In the Eagle’s Shadow
CHAPTER FOURTEEN – Consequences