Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe [Hardcover]

Gregory Gibson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

In 1985 Greg Gibson was sent a handwritten journal discovered by a small time book dealer in rural Indiana. It turned out to be a young officer's account of the 1825 naval expedition dispatched to the Pacific with orders to apprehend the perpetrators of the Globe mutiny. The mutiny and its aftermath were notorious as the goriest crime in American maritime history; involving hatchet murders, stabbings, shootings and a shipboard lynching. The long-lost journal was the first eyewitness account of the fate of those mutineers, and of the innocent men left at the mercy of the tattooed islanders who adopted and enslaved them.

At the center of the mutiny was a young man raised in a staunch Nantucket Quaker family. As a boy Samuel Comstock's head was filled with the stories of daring naval exploits and sea-faring adventure. As he grew older, these fantasies took a darker turn. One year into a Pacific whaling voyage, Comstock brutally murdered the captain and his officers. He and three accomplices then forced the terrified crew (among them his fifteen year old brother) to sail to the Mulgrave Islands where he planned to kill everyone aboard, destroy the ship, subdue the natives and rule the island as its king. In the confusion that followed, six of the innocent crew stole the Globe and piloted her, in an epic shorthanded voyage, 7500 miles back to South America. There they told the world of the terrible events they had witnessed. The Navy sent out its expeditionary force and seventeen-year-old midshipman Augustus Strong penned the journal that would resurface 175 years later.

The story of the Globe mutiny is one of unending fascination. Dovetailing Gibson's riveting account of the mutiny is the history of the sperm oil industry, its Nantucket Quaker powerbrokers, the growth of American naval influence and how their combined agendas played out in the remote reaches of the Pacific. Above all, Demon of the Waters is, in the tradition of Nordhoff and Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty, a story of men and the sea.

Brilliantly conceived, gripping, horrific, and insightful, Demon of the Waters is destined to become a classic of sea adventure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1978, a sailor's log of apparently little value surfaced in Vevay, Ind., and the notebook was eventually discovered to have been penned in 1827 by a 17-year-old sailor named Augustus Strong, stationed aboard the Dolphin, a U.S. Navy schooner dispatched to rescue surviving members of a mutiny in the South Pacific. Using Strong's 150-page record as a primary source, Gibson (Gone Boy), a collector of rare maritime books, retells the shocking tale of the gore-drenched mutiny aboard the whaler Globe. The mutiny was led by rogue Samuel Comstock so the 21-year-old could sail to the remote Marshall Islands, where he intended to build a kingdom for himself and enlist the natives in his private army. Word of the mutiny prompted the rescue voyage of the Dolphin and Strong's personal ledger. While Gibson diligently recounts the building of the Globe and the history of Nantucket whaling as well as the life and hard work aboard a whaler the chronicling of the mutiny lacks punch and the key figures are devoid of significant character. By the time Gibson personally visits the isle of Comstock's landing and death, readers might find it difficult to share the author's interest in what comes across as a bloody though bland story. Illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A whaling vessel built in 1815, the Globe was 78 feet long and staffed by a crew of 21; that one of the crew members was a psychopath bent on taking over the ship, killing his shipmates, and retiring to a South Pacific island to rule the natives seems more like fiction but in January 1825 became fact. In the early chapters of this well-written narrative, Gibson (Gone Boy: A Walkabout) details the dangerous vocation of whaler in the early 1800s, and his recent discovery of a journal by a sailor aboard the navy vessel sent to rescue the survivors of the mutiny is of interest. Gibson's chapters on shipbuilding could have been omitted, as this subject is addressed elsewhere, but once the voyage is under way the real adventure begins. The scheming Samuel Comstock was slain three weeks after committing his evil deeds on the Marshall Islands, leaving his final goal of becoming king unfulfilled. Over 30 pages of notes and a 120-title bibliography attest to Gibson's impressive research on this topic. Recommended for public libraries with maritime interests. James Thorsen, Central North Carolina Regional Lib. Syst., Burlington
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316299235
• ISBN-13: 978-0316299237
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,112,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick up this book and grab your highlighter!!, March 31, 2005

By 

ES "esonde1" (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe (Hardcover)

Grab this book! You're in for a wild ride!

Demon of the Waters stands out from the rest of the books I've found in the whaling adventure genre. Gibson's research is unsurpassed. He provides such varied information on whaling to satisfy anyone's appetite for adventure and knowledge, providing background on how he came across the story of the Globe mutiny and what he discovered during the course of his quest to get to the root of the story as well as the history of whaleship making in Nantucket's heyday. Unlike many other books of this type, the author doesn't bog you down with chapter after chapter of excruciating biographical detail of every crew member aboard the ship. He skillfully chooses to include the relevant information that is pertinent to the story. The mutiny on the Globe is strikingly depicted; the story is unfathomable and never lacks for an unexpected twist. It will haunt you for many days after you finish the book!

I much appreciated the chapters on the nitty-gritty of whaling terms and slang, and what went on step-by-step in felling a whale. Gibson merges thorough research with an incredible tale to create a must-read for any fan of whaling and adventure.

Advice to future readers: notice that the middle section of the book contains illustrations and pictures. I discovered this a little late and would have liked to have noticed it earlier to aid my understanding. I wish Gibson would have referenced them in the text. Overall, an EXCELLENT whaling book. I HIGHLY recommend it. If you enjoy true tales of whaling adventure, I also recommend Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, Neil Hanson's The Custom of the Sea, and Robert Blackwood Robertson's Of Whales and Men.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great mixture of history, adventure and tragedy., May 27, 2003

By 

Wojciech Langer (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe (Hardcover)

I highly recommend this book to all who like to read about toll ships and see adventures.
Painstakingly, masterfully written, book embraces detailed description of whaling ships and their role in making many Nantuckers rich, as well as many aspects of human life during the "golden" era of whaling for oil industry. But not only this.
We have many historical details about early Pacific navigations and about competition for dominance in this region between France, Britain and Americans.
We will learn with fascination how white sailors encountered first time and clashed with other cultures and tribes of Pacific islands; also, how the toll ships were build on Nantucket Island at the beginning of the 19th century and who was involved in those projects.
And of course the main theme - gruesome events on the deck of the "Globe" and on the Mili atoll (Marshall islands), where two cultures met suddenly by surprise and got stunned - beautifully woven into the whole text.
Masterpiece, Mr. Gibson, no doubt. It should be considered as continuation of "In the Heart of the Sea".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched; A true adventure/discovery story, May 19, 2005

By 

Blake Wright - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe (Hardcover)

This is a story about mutiny, a lost journal, and whaling. It begins by telling the reader of the lost journal and how it fell into the hands of the author, who is a used book seller. He is a very knowledgeable bookseller. The reader is the beneficiary of his careful research. We are informed of early U.S. diplomatic relations, political intrigue (often found in the end-notes), and possible literary connections with a famous author. In particular, I found the information about how ships and crews hunted and harvested whales to be rich and insightful. This knowledge alone is worth buying the book.

Nevertheless, the reader is informed of the tight-knit whaling community of Nantucket and its global importance in the whaling industry. The business of whaling is lightly explored. Nantucket's people were recognized as experts and sought after around the world. The author tells briefly of other countries who lured away the little island's whaling experts because of their vast knowledge of whaling.

Then there is the story of the whaleship Globe. Unlike similar books, we are provided with the ship's history. We are taken on a particular voyage with a newly appointed captain and crew. It is this voyage which becomes notorious. The crew itself is mostly boys who are unltimately influenced (frightened?) by another older crew member with a subtle but forebodding history. The muntiny itself is descriptive and haunting--perhaps a vivid reminder of Hobbes' oft-used quote of life being "nasty, brutish, and short." What happens after the mutiny is as interesting as the events leading up to it.

We have a daring escape from the mutineers with only PART the young crew. Without a navigator, they somehow find their way to a continent almost half a world away. Reports of their adventure eventually find there way back to the U.S. We are reminded of how painfully slow news travelled in the 19th century, and how difficult it was to obtain accurate information.

What happened to those people left behind? That is the subject of the newly discovered journal. We are provided with the details by a young aspiring sailor/writer who was part of a rescue mission. It is fondly read and critiqued by our author. We are provided with the details of the fates of those left behind.

The author goes so far as to visit the island where the mutineers came ashore, and allows us to feel the sand under our own feet. After 175 years, he notes the changes in the landscape brought about by war and the passage of time.

Another unexpected gem in this book is the suggestion of the influence this book had on Herman Melville. The author posits just enough to make you think he relied on much more than the story of the Essex.

An enjoyable read.