Enoch's Voyage [Hardcover]

Enoch Carter Cloud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

"This is a diary of my great-great-grandfather, Enoch Carter Cloud, who as a young man ran away to find adventure at sea." Thus begins the introduction by Cloud's great-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth McLean, to the personal log of a young sailor on a 19th-century whaling vessel. The author journeys around the world giving richly detailed narratives of encounters with native peoples in Portugal, Africa, New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and the West Indies. He describes a number of whale chases in vivid language, with a surprising note og anguish at the slaughter of the harpoon whales fighting for their lives in a sea of blood.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1851, young Enoch Cloud left his Ohio home to sign up for a whaling voyage on the Henry Kneeland out of New Bedford, Mass. For 32 months, he kept a journal, recording life aboard ship. The voyage took Cloud across the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope, then to New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, the Pacific islands, around Cape Horn and home in April 1854. Edited by his great-great granddaughter, the journal details encounters with native peoples, mutinous crew members, and homesickness, storms and other dangers at sea. It is a vivid portrayal of whaling in the age of sail, when men hunted giants of the deep with hand-held harpoons. Cloud describes successes, failures and many narrow escapes.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Begun the year Moby-Dick was published, this young Ohioan's daily journal of a 32-month, round-the-world trip on a New England whaler dramatizes how arduous, dangerous, claustrophobic, and long such voyages were. As such, it provides a helpful companion to Melville's novel. Despite occasional flashes of insight, however, the work is not that appealing. The average entry is only about ten lines, including the mandatory observations about weather conditions, and obscure references go unexplained. The pious author dwells on Captain Vinall's refusal to observe the sabbath properly. From the start, he pines for his family and, despite a short spasm of wonder at the natural world around him, uses too much of his journal looking forward to the day he can return to them. Finally, although unusually literate, Cloud has so little faith in his ability to describe his reactions to events that he doesn't even try. Mildly interesting; for history collections.
Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 381 pages
• Publisher: Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries; 1st edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559210796
• ISBN-13: 978-1559210799
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vibrant and Personal of a life at sea, May 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Enoch's Voyage (Hardcover)

Cloud has taken us on his journey to sea from the historic port of New Bedford, Mass. Setting out to "Go a Whalin" Cloud seems to not have fully appreciated what he was in for and did not take the advice of an old salt on shore who had warned him off. Sailing for the oil was the boom of his day, and the years it took to return were well rewarded if the ship did well. Each day cloud takes us about the ship to feel the day's events as he personally lived them, the chase, the pull, the hook, the cutting, the boiling, the oil always the oil. Cloud is very eloquent in his description of the crew and is always one for a humourous tone if it need be. A longing for home and the comforts of family are the true story here and the diary is always the best to read the real story behind the words. A perfect book for a rainy stormy night under the covers!!!