Revenge of The Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards)) [Hardcover]

Nathaniel Philbrick (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards)

In 1820, the Essex was rammed by an enraged sperm whale and sunk in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As the ship went down, the twenty-man crew, many of whom were teenagers, piled into three leaky boats with minimal supplies and little hope. Yet three months later, eight of the men were rescued. How these young men overcame starvation, dehydration, and the maddening fear of a vengeful whale is an adventure that was famous in the nineteenth century and that thrills readers to this day.

Now Nathaniel Philbrick brings that adventure to life for young readers. Including maps, diagrams, and an eight-page photo insert, Revenge of the Whale will keep readers on the edge of their seats as it recounts the shocking ordeal these brave men endured.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For older readers, Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick describes a tale worthy of Ahab: on November 20, 1820, an angry sperm whale took vengeance on the men who would slay it for oil. Adapted from Philbrick's bestselling title for adults, In the Heart of the Sea, the narrative draws from primary sources, including the account of cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, who joined the crew at age 14. Ages 7-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10-Philbrick has carefully adapted and abridged his adult title, In the Heart of the Sea (Viking, 2000). He tells the story of the Nantucket whaleship Essex, which sank in the Pacific in November 1820, after being deliberately rammed twice by an apparently enraged sperm whale. Three months later, five emaciated men were rescued from two small boats filled with the bones of their unlucky companions. The whale's attack on the Essex gave Herman Melville the idea for the climactic scene in Moby-Dick. The abridging is primarily accomplished by limiting descriptive passages and focusing more tightly on the narrative elements. However, sufficient description is retained to give readers an understanding of both whaling and life in Nantucket in the early 19th century. Other than these elisions, the text is largely unchanged from the original, although in a few places a simpler synonym replaces a more evocative word; likewise, in passages where he had assumed background knowledge, Philbrick skillfully supplies context and explanation. The lengthy section of notes following the text has been omitted, and the extensive bibliography has been replaced by a short, briefly annotated list of related reading. Useful maps, diagrams, and other illustrations have been retained. The story of the Essex crew is a compelling saga of desperation and survival that will appeal to young people. The grisly details of cannibalism necessary to the telling of the story may provoke shivers but should not give anyone nightmares. Walter Brown's Sea Disasters (HarperCollins, 1981) includes a brief chapter on the Essex, but there is nothing else for young readers on the subject. With this masterful adaptation, Philbrick's work fills a void.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Franklin Public Library, MA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (September 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039923795X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399237959
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nathaniel Philbrick
Life at a Glance

Born
1956 in Boston, Mass.

Educated
Linden Elementary School and Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Pa.; BA in English from Brown University in Providence, RI, and an MA in America Literature from Duke University in Durham, NC

Sailing
Philbrick was Brown's first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978; that year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI; today he and his wife Melissa sail their Beetle Cat Clio and their Tiffany Jane 34 Marie-J in the waters surrounding Nantucket Island.

Married
Melissa Douthart Philbrick, who is an attorney on Nantucket. They have two children: Jennie, 23, and Ethan 20.

Career
After grad school, Philbrick worked for four years at Sailing World magazine; was a freelancer for a number of years, during which time he wrote/edited several sailing books, including Yaahting: A Parody (1984), for which he was the editor-in-chief; during this time he was also the primary caregiver for his two children. After moving to Nantucket in 1986, he became interested in the history of the island and wrote Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People. He was offered the opportunity to start the Egan Maritime Foundation in 1995, and in 2000 he published In the Heart of the Sea, followed by Sea of Glory, in 2003, and Mayflower, due in May 2006.

Awards and Honors
In the Heart of the Sea won the National Book Award for nonfiction; Revenge of the Whale won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; Sea of Glory won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. Philbrick has also received the Byrne Waterman Award from the Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum, and the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indomitable Survival Overcomes Impossible Circumstances, September 23, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex (Paperback)

This story has to be one of the most astonishing tales of survival in recorded history. Before I say more, let me caution you that this story (and parts of this review) is not for those with weak stomachs.

After their ship is disabled by an attacking sperm whale, the survivors find themselves on three open boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean over 2,000 miles from their targeted landfall in South America. With luck, they will make it in 30 days. They soon find themselves in a stall as the winds fail to cooperate, except to provide severe storms that threaten to capsize the boats.

Soon, all the food is encrusted with salt and everyone is suffering with severe dehydration. Then things start to get worse! I won't go further, but you have an amazing story of survival ahead of you.

Two of the few survivors of this terrible ordeal later committed their experiences to writing, which provide great resources for this well-researched book.

At another level, the book is also extremely interesting because these experiences were important influences on Herman Melville's writing of the American classic, Moby Dick. The book makes the connection, including how Melville came to learn the story.

At a third level, the book is a fascinating history of whaling around 1920. If you are like me, you will cringe when the whalers devastate island after island. But that's not the limit to their willingness to use nature to their own advantage.

The ultimate irony is that the survivors went the wrong way. Those from Nantucket did not know about Tahiti and Hawaii, and chose not to go in either of those directions -- either of which would have provided more rapid safety and comfort. The primary reason they chose not to go in these directions is because they feared running into cannibals. Soon the survivors were studying the remains of dead shipmates with hunger. And then it gets worse.

So, you have three different kinds of books to read here, anyone of which could be enormously enjoyable to you. Get ready for the trip of your life!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: REVENGE OF THE WHALE, October 7, 2002

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Revenge of The Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards)) (Hardcover)

Baby beluga in the deep blue sea,
Swim so wild and you swim so free.
Heaven above and the sea below,
And a little white whale on the go.--Raffi

REVENGE OF THE WHALE: THE TRUE STORY OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX is Nathaniel Philbrick's adaptation for young people of his National Book Award-winning bestseller, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. While I have not read the adult version, I can tell you that this edition of the author's compelling account of the real-life catastrophe of 1820-21, in which a whale attacks a whaleship in the middle of the Pacific, was detailed and gory enough to keep me horrified for hours, to the extent that it caused me to forget all about my initial delight that at least one whale had apparently gotten even with humankind for what our forefathers had done for the sake of lamp oil and ambergris.

Your mama told you never
to eat your friends
with your fingers and
hands, but I say you
ought to eat what
you will - shove it
in your mouth any way
that you can. --Silver Spoon by Grace Slick

Utilizing primary source material, including two accounts written by survivors of the wreck about their nightmarish journey across thousands of miles of the Pacific from the middle of nowhere to their rescue off the coast of Chile, the author has crafted a first-rate adventure story that is also a tale of unbearable tragedy.

"Like a giant bird of prey, the whaleship moved lazily up the western coast of South America, zigging and zagging across a living sea of oil. For that was the Pacific Ocean in 1821, a vast field of warm-blooded oil deposits known as sperm whales."

From the early portions of this saga, which take place before an obstinate, eighty-five foot long sperm whale decides that enough is enough, we learn a vast array of information about the port of Nantucket and the whaleships. The author clearly describes and provides illustrations of the ship's layout, including the names of the masts and individual sails, the crews makeup, including their respective duties and the system of remuneration, their navigational tools, and the graphic details of converting those floating oil deposits into big bucks for the shipowners. I was amazed to discover that the wind patterns dictate that in order to sail from New England around the 'Horn to the Pacific, the whalers would nearly scrape the west coast of Africa! And the fact that ambergris--literally worth more than its weight in gold to perfume manufacturers--was generated as the result of whale constipation.

But it's also fascinating to learn at the end about the later lives of those eight men who somehow survived for three months on the ocean in the worst of circumstances--and how the son of one of those survivors grew up to become a whaler, lent a shipmate his father's account of the Essex disaster, and thus became indirectly responsible for that shipmate, Herman Melville, being inspired to write MOBY DICK...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revenge of the Whale, May 8, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex (Paperback)

Revenge of the Whale is about a whaleship journey, with the ship Essex. Captain George Pollard faces many mysterious, and fatal incidents with two different kinds of whales, and many different kinds of weather. This whaleship sailed out of Nantuckett, MA to find only one resource...oil. But they've come across more than just oil, but tragedy along with it.

My personal favorite part of the book is when the crew first sees land in months. I liked this part of the book becuase, it gave me a great essence of releif. I also liked this part of the book becuase, it showed that God gave the crew mercy, something they've always needed. The last reason I liked this book is becuase, I was thinking about what the job description to be a whaler if they told the applicant everything, " You may find yourself eating your best friend, starving to death, dieing of thirst, and drinking the blood of turtles.
I reccommend this book to only a mature audience becuase, little kids would certainly not appreciate this incredible historical story. There is also some confusing and misleading parts of this book that young people wouldnt care for or understand. This story may also bring fear to a small child of the ocean or whales. Once again, mature audiences only!