In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon [Paperback]

Joan Druett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2004

After more than a century of silence, the true story of one of history's most notorious mutinies is revealed in Joan Druett's riveting "nautical murder mystery" (USA Today). On May 25, 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year later, while most of the crew was out hunting, Captain Howes Norris was brutally murdered. When the men in the whaleboats returned, they found four crew members on board, three of whom were covered in blood, the other screaming from atop the mast. Single-handedly, the third officer launched a surprise attack to recapture the Sharon, killing two of the attackers and subduing the other. An American investigation into the murder was never conducted--even when the Sharon returned home three years later, with only four of the original twenty-nine crew on board.

Joan Druett, a historian who's been called a female Patrick O'Brian by the Wall Street Journal, dramatically re-creates the mystery of the ill-fated whaleship and reveals a voyage filled with savagery under the command of one of the most ruthless captains to sail the high seas.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nonfiction accounts about whaling tend to intone Melville's name like a mantra, and Druett's volume about the bedeviled 1841-1845 voyage of the Sharon is no exception. By any measure, the expedition was a catastrophe, with mutiny, desertion and the mid-voyage murder of Capt. Howes Norris by South Pacific Kanaka tribesmen. "It is probably no coincidence," Druett writes, "that Captain Ahab found disaster in the same empty tropic seas where Captain Norris was killed." New Zealander Druett, a well-known maritime journalist (She Captains; Rough Medicine; etc.), doesn't focus on Norris's death. She's more interested in plumbing the "crucial questions" that "lurk unanswered," foremost among them: what caused the severe discontent among the crew? The answer turns out to be, unsurprisingly, Norris's beastly and sadistic treatment, mainly his frenzied persecution of black steward George Babcock. Druett draws on recently unearthed journals from the voyage to assemble a terrific account of an unusually eventful voyage. She has the good sense to maintain a light touch on the events, and manages a perfect balance between telling the story in an unfussy yet dramatic manner and honoring its complexity.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

When the American whaleship Sharon arrived at Sydney in December 1842, the world first heard of the shocking murder of the captain by several Pacific island natives serving on the crew. Chalking it up to the savage nature of the islanders, no one bothered to investigate. Druett, a widely published maritime historian, retells the familiar story of how the mutineers were overcome but delves deeper into the details of the infamous expedition. She bases her account on the journals of the ship's cooper and the third mate. Even before Captain Norris beat the ship's steward to death, both journals indicated the captain had a mean streak and racist tendencies. Crew members who passively watched the violent outbursts did not publicly reveal that Norris was dangerous, nor that the islanders had good reason to fear the captain. Druett's account of the incident will appeal to those looking for a good drama, but also to those analytically minded skeptics inclined to ask questions and dig below the surface. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (January 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565124359
• ISBN-13: 978-1565124356
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Back in the year 1984, on the picture-poster tropical island of Rarotonga, I literally fell into whaling history when I tumbled into a grave. A great tree had been felled by a recent hurricane, exposing a gravestone that had been hidden for more than one and a half centuries. It was the memorial to a young whaling wife, who had sailed with her husband on the New Bedford ship Harrison in the year 1845. And so my fascination with maritime history was triggered ... resulting in 18 books (so far). The latest -- number nineteen -- is a biography of a truly extraordinary man, Tupaia, star navigator and creator of amazing art.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sadist On The High Seas, May 19, 2003

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon (Hardcover)

Joan Druett adds her name to the growing list of authors who have, in the last few years, tackled the topic of seafaring misadventure. We have had several excellent entries in this genre, including Nathaniel Philbrick's "In The Heart Of The Sea" and Mike Dash's "Batavia's Graveyard." Joan Druett's book is not quite on the level of those two books- they are "richer" in their narrative drive and complexity- but "In The Wake Of Madness" is still a good, solid "read." The author points out that at the time of the mutiny on the whaleship "Sharon," people who were not on board the ship assumed that the South Sea Islanders who killed Captain Howes Norris did so because they were "cannibals" and "heathens." The people who had direct knowledge of the events preceding the mutiny did nothing to dispel this notion- to do so would have raised questions concerning their own active or passive complicity in Norris's actions and could have damaged the careers of some highly ambitious ships' officers. It turns out that Captain Norris had, over a long period of time, systematically beaten and abused an 18 year old crew member (and apparent fugitive slave) named George Babcock. A combination of floggings and backbreaking labor finally resulted in the death of Babcock. Worse still, it appears that Norris knew, way before the final denouement, that his actions would result in Babcock's death. It was the result he was looking for. Druett speculates on the motivation(s): racism, anger/fear (Norris had had trouble keeping control over his crew on a prior voyage on a different ship), frustration (the "Sharon" was having very bad luck finding and catching whales), etc. Of course, harsh discipline was nothing unusual on board ships at the time. But Norris seems to have been especially brutal, even by 19th century standards. Babcock at one point tried to get help from his fellow crewmembers, as he feared for his life. His mates did try to protect him, before finally yielding to the authority of the captain and his officers. Why did the officers support the captain? We have to remember that a captain was sovereign of his ship. Going against his wishes could result in being branded a mutineer...not exactly good for your career. In any event, it appears that the South Sea Islanders who killed Captain Norris were either similarly abused or felt that, given enough time, they would suffer the same fate as Babcock. "In The Wake Of Madness" works as both an adventure story- as Mrs. Druett describes the recapture of the "Sharon" by her crew- and as something broader- as we learn a bit about the day-to-day operation of a whaling ship and of the cultural dynamics that came into play when New England whalers met Pacific Islanders. Stopping off at the islands was a bit like playing "Russian Roulette." On some islands, the natives were very friendly and would provide women and food for trade goods (although they did have a propensity for stealing anything made of iron that wasn't nailed down). On other islands you could run into cannibals or natives who would murder the crew and steal the ship. Not infrequently, some crewmembers who felt misused would jump-ship at some friendly port-of-call and "go native" or try to "sign-on" with another whaling ship with a more easy-going captain. We also learn a little about life back home on Martha's Vineyard. The book seems a bit abrupt and frantically paced, with Mrs. Druett attempting to juggle all this in only 230 pages. Still, this is a generally well-written, interesting book, and worth your time.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Criminal Captain, June 1, 2003

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon (Hardcover)

Joan Druett's "In the Wake of Madness" joins the glut of recently published worksks about historical nautical disasters and mutinies that are lining the bookshelves these days. The quality of these books varies widely, but fortunately Druett's is both well-researched and well-written. The story of the ill-fated 1841 voyage of the whaleship Sharon is fairly grusome in its details. The ships's captain, Howes Norris, a respected member of the Martha's Vineyard community, became increasingly mentally unhinged, turning on members of his crew with savage fury. Things came to a head when he literally beat his cabin steward to death in front of the crew. Not long after, Captain Norris was himself savagely murdered by several Pacific islander crew members that had been picked up as replacements for deserters from the original crew.

All of this Druett recounts with prose that is elegant and highly readable. Throughout, she intertwines the story of the Sharon with that of Herman Melville, the "Moby Dick" author who had sailed on a whaling ship and was starting his writing career at around the same time. She describes the awful conditions that the whaleship crews labored under and throws in enough historical backdrop to frame the story.

If the book has a drawback, its that there were no surviving firsthand accounts of Captain Morris's death. Most of the book draws on never-published journals kept by two of the crew members. Unfortunately, both journals have signifcant gaps in them, which Druett attempts to fill with other contemporary accounts of whaling vessles. For the most part, she succeeds, though the book could also have used an illustrations section. At 230 pages of narrative, it is a relatively fast read.

Overall, an excellent work of narrative nautical history that will appeal most strongly to those who love good sea adventure tales.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent book..., September 14, 2005

By 

Barnes and Noble Junkie (Barnes And Noble, Midlothian, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon (Hardcover)

Add this to the list of maritime disaster books that are springing up. As this book doesn't go into as much detail about the whaling industry as several of the others, it is a very quick read (a rainy weekend should do it). Of interest were the sections on beachcombers and runaway slaves.

It is well written and is a page turner. Most of the material comes from 2 "long lost" journals written by 2 members of the crew. Unfortunately they did not witness the actual murder so there is some question as to what actually happened.

This is an enjoyable read (that you can actually get at your local B&N for $4.98 right now (hardcover even)).. If you like this you might also try:

Moby Dick (the book almost all of these other "non-fictional" books reference.

Neil Hanson's Custom of the Sea
Gregory Gibson's Demon of the Water
Glyn Williams' The Prize of All the Oceans (my favorite of the group)
Mike Dash's Batavia's Graveyard
Caroline Alexander's The Bounty
Sir John Barrow's Mutiny
Nathanial Philbrick's In the Heart of Sea
Davis Shaw's The Sea Shall Embrace Them
Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm
Doug Stanton's In Harm's Way