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  • Published: 3 December 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473545168
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

Shipwreck Of The Whaleship Essex

The true story that inspired the film In the Heart of the Sea



The original true account of the whale attack that inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick and the new film In the Heart of the Sea: a thrilling tale of shipwreck and survival - and cannibalism

DON'T MISS THE MAJOR FILM INSPIRED BY CHASE'S NARRATIVE, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA

On 20 November 1820, just south of the equator, the whaling ship Essex, spotted and pursued a shoal of sperm whales. As the crew started harpooning, the largest whale – some 85 feet long – rammed the Essex twice and 'stove in her bows'. What followed was an epic three-month voyage in open boats across storm-tossed seas. Only eight men survived, sustained by eating those who died.

This edition includes Owen Chases’s famous account, as well as memoirs by two other crew members and a facsimile of Herman Melville's notes on Chase’s narrative.

  • Published: 3 December 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473545168
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

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Praise for Shipwreck Of The Whaleship Essex

The effect is kaleidoscopic. A vivid portrait emerges of the shipwrecked men's privatations and fundamental moral dilemma: literally to eat or be eaten

Lawrence Norfolk

Chase's book still has an almost Biblical power

Mail on Sunday

The reading of this wondrous story...had a surprising effect on me

Herman Melville

When I found myself popping the notes I attach to potential quotes to virtually every page, I realised I might as well just deliver a rousing injunction to read the book for yourselves

Christina Hardyment, Independent

The gripping sea story which helped to inspire Moby-Dick

Christopher Frayling, Observer

An incredibly vivid journal of survival

Scotsman