In the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, whale oil was in high demand due to its many uses, the main one being fuel for oil lamps. To obtain the whale oil, a method named whaling took place. This method included sailing into the ocean and hunting whales for the oil located in their bodies. The author of In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick, lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts and wrote books while being a freelancer, while also raising his two children at the same time. After doing this for multiple years, Nathaniel Philbrick decided to become a full time writer and has been writing boat and sailing books for many years, and wrote In the Heart of the Sea in 2000, winning a National Book Award for his novel. This book was an interesting …show more content…
After leaving the docks, it is easy to notice that the general of the ship was inexperienced in whaling and may not have been the best candidate for the position. The general was confident, but the lack of knowledge about sailing resulted in the ship almost becoming capsized due to his poor decision making. After that poor decision, the general started to listen to the First Mate, Owen Chase. While being swayed by Owen Chase’s opinions on where to go next in the ocean, he agrees to head off the main path a bit and go further where there is rumored to be a massive amount of whales. Upon entering the area, the crew is greeted by a pack of whales. The sailors thought that they had hit the jackpot, but the biggest whale began to be …show more content…
After the whale hit the Essex with its tail, the ship sunk and the sailors were stranded with only a few small ships and low amounts of food and water to survive on. The new goal of the surviving sailors wasn’t to hunt for more whale oil, but to make it back home alive. While being stranded at sea, the crew spots land in the distance. Excited, they rowed to the island in hope of being rescued by somebody there. On their way, the same whale that wrecked their ship reappeared and did more damage to the smaller ships that they had. The men were carried to the island shore by the ocean tide. With only one more boat left, it was unclear whether or not if they were going back out to sea. The sailors quickly realized that the island was deserted, but decided to stay in case any ships passed by and were able to rescue them. The crew stayed there for a few days, but decided that ships wouldn’t pass and decided to go back on the ocean. Only half of the crew agreed to keep sailing, while the others stayed behind on the island in the small chance that they would be rescued. The few sailors who went back into the ocean became dehydrated, and had no food. After one of the men on the boat died, the rest of the crew decided that they had to eat the dead
They grabbed them and started rowing toward shore. The Oiler complained about the rowing, but that didn’t stop them. They weren’t just rowing for their own lives, but the lives of their comrades. The captain made sure to tell the rowers to take it easy, if they have to start swimming for shore they will need all their strength to do so. The boat began to turn it’s nose to the wind, once again.
On the second day, the captain was feverishly searching at the crack of dawn for the whale that managed to evade them the previous day. Once they spotted him after firing rifles into the air, they hastily lowered boats into the water and headed after him again. They saw lines attached to him from previous days, and when Moby Dick wrecked one of their boats he dragged Parsee, one of the crew
In Chapter 69, the narrator vividly describes the image of a recently captured, decapitated sperm whale bleakly floating about near the Pequod while sharks and birds feast upon its dead remains. Despite the degrading imagery of, “the air above vexed with rapacious flights of screaming fowls, whose beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the whale,” the whale has still, “not perceptibly lost anything in bulk...it is still colossal,” (257). In the spite of its crude carcass, there is still human wonderment in regards to the indisputable massivity of the whale. However, the whale is not considered to be enormous just because of its literal size, but also because of the long-lasting effect its dead body will have on future ship encounters. It is the duty of a ship captain to avoid steering a ship into dangerous territory--the most common of which would be large rocks near the shore. In the lines, “...the whale’s unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log-- shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabouts: beware!”, (257), the sperm whale’s carcass is often mistaken for rocks and, so, it necessarily follows that, “for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum…” (257). The paragraph continues with the lines, “there’s your law of precedents; there’s your utility of traditions; there’s the story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth…” (257), which reinforce the idea that since the sperm whale is already seen as being frightening and mysterious, its dead body ensues the same kinds of paranoid, uneasy thoughts. So, although
The first whale to ever be captured was Moby Doll. The capture of Moby Doll was an accident; the purpose of getting this whale was so a sculptor named Samuel Burich could make a life size model for the British Columbia Hall Aquarium. Moby Doll was shot numerous times, but would not die. Since the whale would not die they decided to keep the whale and put it on display. There was little information on how to take care of the whale. Moby Doll did not eat for fifty-five days while being held captive. They were giving the whale the wrong food and when they finally figured it out the whale killed itself a month later. “Stories of Killer Captive Whales”.
There are four men stranded on a boat who are introduced in the beginning of the story. The cook, the oiler, the correspondent, and the captain are all on a boat that "a man ought to have a bath tub larger than" (360). As the men fight the crest of each wave they encounter, it is obvious that this is a desperate situation. Showing their powerlessness the narrator describes a group of birds as sitting ."..comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland" (363). Even though the men are in grave danger, the sun rises and sets and a shark even swims by but seems to have no need for the men in the boat. The men even believe that the waves are harsh on them and want to capsize the boat. The narrator explains that "[the waves were] nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats" (361). Even though it is obvious that the ocean always has waves, it is hard fo...
Before affiliating the crew aboard the ship with Moby Dick, there are some comparisons to be made between them and ocean inhabitants in general. While living in the ocean environment the men begin to acquire the same survival techniques as some of the organisms in the ocean. The manner in which the whalers go about slaughtering the whales is much like the way that the sharks react to the whale carcass being held stagnate in the water. "....because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather round the moored carcass, that were he left so for six hours, say, on a stretch, little more that the skeleton would be visible by mornong"(Melville 328). These sharks are savages in the face of sustenance. In most cases the sheer size of the whale prohibits it from being captured and consumed by the sharks. The only chance that they have at these huge beasts is when they are slung along side the whaling ships. Once they have their opening to this plethora of meat it becomes a barbaric feeding frenzy. These actions of the sharks reflect the actions of the whalers when taking part in the slaying of a whale. "Soon ranging up by his flank, Stubb, firmly planting his knee in the clumsy cleat, darted dart after dart into the flying gish.
A leader and a fatherly figure, the Captain serves as the men's compass and keeper of order. His firm navigational commands and calm demeanor make the men a “ready-to-obey ship's company” regardless of their lack of practical experience. Ironically, the Captain is also the most physically useless man on board. Injured from the sinking, the Captain is filled with a quiet despair over his own ability to survive. A hardened seaman, he believes in the idea that a captain should perish with his ship -- to live at sea and to die at sea. The Captain even clings to the dinghy upon being rescued as if he feels a sense of obligation to remain with his boat in the briny deep. Though distraught over the fate of his ship and crewman, the Captain takes solace in providing for the dinghy’s survivors. Occupied with the well-being of others, the Captain does not contemplate his purpose or circumstances in life; he uses his energy to protect his crew and vessel, finding a renewed sense of meaning in this lesser form of leadership. Even when a callous seagull attempts to nip his open wounds, the Captain gently waves the bird away, respecting its life. The Cook on the other hand, attempts to swat it with an
Have you seen beached whales? These massive creatures strand themselves on the beach, alone or in a group, the whims of the moon’s tidal forces. Sometimes, a single whale trapped by the moon’s pull calls in distress, drawing the sympathy of the whole pod, a case of symphony dooming the whole community stranded on the beach to a slow death. In “Why we care about whales”, Marina Keegan writes about witnessing fifty or so stranded pilot whales “lying along the stretch of beach in front of her house, surrounded by frenzied neighbors and animal activists” (35,36). Like the others, she jumped in to help—a futile task which finally led to “23 pairs of whale eyes glazed over” (32,33). Keegan suggests that despite the logic that human welfares are more important than animals’, emotions of compassion towards animals blind us from(better words) feeling the fragility of human suffering near or far away from us. She herself couldn’t think philosophically in the present of dying whales. The ambiguity of her thoughts reveals the paradox between logic and emotion. (unfinished)
The quest to gain international agreement on ethical and legal norms for regulation of whaling has had a long and troubled history. The modern phase of global concern over whaling ethics and conservationist management originated in 1946, when the International Convention on Regulation of Whaling was signed. Thus the International Whaling Commission was created. The International Whaling Commission was designed to control and mandate the whaling industry. From it’s beginning as simply a whalers club with scientific guidance, to the current day conservationist body; the IWC has undergone many revisions and transformations since the start. In 1982 the IWC voted to implement a “pause” on commercial whaling (which is still in effect today). Which major whaling nations, Japan, Norway, Peru, and the Soviet Union (later replaced by Russia) lodged formal objections, due to the fact that the moratorium was not based on advice from the Scientific Committee. One major disappointment of this regulation was due the fact that the moratorium only applies to commercial whaling. Thus, whaling under scientific-research and aboriginal-subsistence is still allowed. Japan and other countries have continued their hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the “scientific research” loophole. However, environmental activist groups openly dispute the claims and continue their rally to end the whaling industry for good.
Therefore, the incessant troubles arising from human conditions often bring about unpredictable crises as "shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. " The tiny "open boat", which characters desperately cling to, signifies the weak, helpless, and vulnerable conditions of human life since it is deprived of other protection due to the shipwreck. The "open boat" also accentuates the "open suggestion of hopelessness" amid the wild waves of life. The crew of the boat perceive their precarious fate as "preposterous" and "absurd" so much so that they can feel the "tragic" aspect and "coldness of the water. " At this point, the question of why they are forced to be "dragged away" and to "nibble the sacred cheese of life" raises a meaningful issue over life itself.
The day the ship leaves the dock in search of whales, the men are trapped in a world gone mad with no escape. Ishmael, Starbuck, and Captain Ahab are all trapped in an unfortunate tragedy. Before boarding the ship, Ishmael saw a person on the dock beside the whaling boat. This person's name is Elijah, coincidentally sharing the same name as the prophet. Elijah hints to Ishmael to turn back from this voyage while he still has time.
Ishmael marvels at this site from the Pequod, and on the second day paints the picture of “Right Whales” mowing through the brit, “leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea” (Melville, 1851: 305). The meadow‑like appearance of the sea is truly a realistic one, however, the comparison is embellished in such a farfetched, illusory way that Melville’s readers have no choice but to desert reason and visualize an image that most individuals have never observed. As the chapter ensues, Melville continues to illustrate the ocean through Ishmael’s perspective, where the watery expanse is anthropomorphized, to “swallow up ships and crews,” evoking the image that the monster, is perhaps not the White Whale but the ocean; an element that represents “universal cannibalism,” and an unconquerable wild beast (Melville, 1851: 307). Ishmael describes the ocean as “a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her cubs […] Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe” (Melville, 1851: 307). This is perhaps, Ishmael’s first realization that the ocean is not what it appears and that the “loveliest shades of azure,” make one forget the feral beast that prowls in the deep. This visual juxtaposition is one of many that appear in Moby Dick,
In the story, “Survive the Savage Sea” by Dougal Robertson, the Robertson family goes to sea to travel around the world and have a fun family vacation and have a seaman experience like their father had done when he was a seaman. While on the trip the family’s boat was attack by a group of killer whales and was destroyed. The family was left for 38 days lost at sea rationing on supplies that were not intended to last them that long. The father, Dougal Robertson, wrote this story on their experience and said this “the predatory emotions that are brought to the fore to make life possible in this primitive style are not compatible with emotional beauty and emotional finesse”
Since this bond of brotherhood is felt by all the men in the boat, but not discussed, it manifests in small ways as the men interact with each other. They are never irritated or upset with each other, no matter how tired or sore they are. Whenever one man is too tired to row, the next man takes over without complaining. When the correspondent thinks that he is the only person awake on the boat, and he sees and hears the shark in the water, the narrator says, “Nevertheless, it is true that he did not want to be alone with the thing. He wished one of his companions to awaken by chance and keep him company with it” (Crane 212).
In the story "The Open Boat," by Stephen Crane, Crane uses many literary techniques to convey the stories overall theme. The story is centered on four men: a cook, a correspondent, Billie, an oiler who is the only character named in the story, and a captain. They are stranded in a lifeboat in stormy seas just off the coast of Florida, just after their ship has sunk. Although they can eventually see the shore, the waves are so big that it is too dangerous to try to take the boat in to land. Instead, the men are forced to take the boat further out to sea, where the waves are not quite as big and dangerous. They spend the night in the lifeboat and take turns rowing and then resting. In the morning, the men are weak and exhausted. The captain decides that they must try to take the lifeboat as close to shore as possible and then be ready to swim when the surf inevitably turns the boat over and throws the men into the cold sea. As they get closer to land a big wave comes and all the men are thrown into the sea. The lifeboat turns over and the four men must swim into shore. There are rescuers waiting on shore who help the men out of the water. Strangely, as the cook, captain and correspondent reach the shore safely and are helped out of the water, they discover that, somehow, the oiler has drowned after being smashed in the surf by a huge wave. (255-270) “The Open Boat’s” main theme deals with a character’s seemingly insignificant life struggle against nature’s indifference. Crane expresses this theme through a suspenseful tone, creative point of view, and a mix of irony.