Customer Reviews

In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon [With Earbuds] (Playaway Adult Nonfiction)

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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.

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.

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

Whaling as romantic adventure has been with us since before Herman Melville put pen to paper. Even today, amidst a reassessment of the brutality of whale killing and its ecological impact, we still maintain a peculiar nostalgia for the days of the sail ship and harpoon. "Moby-Dick" is a least partially to blame for this.

Joan Druett's "In the Wake of Madness" is a powerful antidote to the idea that whaling was a rollicking high-seas adventure amongst exotic and eccentric characters. Her account of the systematic torture and murder of a cabin boy, at the hands of a sick captain named Howes Norris (while the crew did practically nothing), ranks as one of the most abominable things I've ever read. Norris' eventual murder at the hands of several Polynesian crew members, and the third mate's courageous attempt to re-take the ship, appear almost anti-climactic.

Druett's book is extremely well-researched, and it succeeds in showing whaling to be what it really was: grueling work for years at a time that involved hunger, danger, and isolation, surrounded by boorish and uneducated (and occasionally sadistic) men, and long periods of inactivity and tedium. She builds suspense early on ("Secrets were kept..."), and as another reviewer remarked, the specter of Melville hovers over everything. My only criticism is how she elevated the third mate to heroic status (his photo appears on the dust jacket). As far as I'm concerned, his paralysis during George Babcock's torture and murder, and his silence once the "Sharon" returned home, render him an accessory to the crime. But perhaps this is the publisher's doing. Whatever the case, "In the Wake of Madness" will keep you immersed in its tale, and its tragedy may keep you awake at night.

The tale of the "Sharon" is an interesting one, indeed. Ms. Druett is a knowledgable historian, and perhaps a very fine text book author. However, this particular book is disjointed. It is extremely frustrating to the reader when one of the main principals in this storyis "never to be heard from again" WHAT? after two hundred pages, I would have liked at least some rumors of his fate. Another dies an early death, time and place noted, but NO CAUSE of death. AARRGGGHHH. Also distracting are the continual references to Herman Melville, who was neither present, nor directly involved with the story at all. In all, the story could be interesting, and I hope someone else will take it up, because I felt somewhat cheated.

"Whaling captains were men who left their souls at home."

On May 25, 1841, the whaling ship Sharon departed Fairhaven, Massachusetts for the limitless Pacific. She sailed under the command of Captain Howes Norris.

The sun was already setting on America's whaling industry. Consistent successful voyages had inspired investors to build more and more ships, which swelled America's whaling fleet to its largest in history. This resulted in an acute shortage of competent sailors--especially harpooners--which thereupon resulted in unqualified crews manning the ships, and particularly the whaleboats, the small craft dispatched to harpoon the whales. Not to mention, years of successful voyages had drastically reduced the sperm whale population. Now, what few whales were sighted, inexperienced harpooners often failed to drive in the harpoon deeply enough to kill, or even missed their gargantuan targets altogether. If a whaling master failed to bring home at least 1,500 barrels of oil, he seriously risked never being granted a command again.

And the somewhat inexperienced, somewhat innocent crew of the Sharon weighed anchor under the restless command of Howes Norris. It was to become one of the most notorious voyages of the 19th century.

Month after month slid by . . . the Sharon paced along the broiling equator, ever hopeful, but seldom satisfied. If she stopped at an island for provisions, desertion was commonplace. Men would jump ship in the night and swim a half-mile to shore. And so natives were taken aboard to fill vacancies. A somewhat inexperienced crew was rendered even more inexperienced.

On a fine Pacific day in November 1842, as the vast majority of the scant crew were out in the whaleboats, Captain Norris was viciously murdered--literally cut in two--by natives recruited at Rotuma. What could have inspired such horrific violence? Was this an unprovoked attack by savages? Or was it retribution?

This is one of the most readable nautical books I've ever read. The author convincingly evokes the monotony of life at sea, the explosive results of close quarters, the frustration of a captain on a fruitless voyage, and the terror of a man with unquestionable authority. With this book, I could feel the deck swaying beneath my feet; I could see the wet decks steaming in the equatorial sun.

The author paints beautiful portraits of exotic locales visited by the Sharon, islands such as Nukuoro, Rotuma, Banaba, and Kiribati. She also draws compelling parallels between the Sharon's ugly voyage and the fiction of Herman Melville, who himself served aboard whalers and witnessed firsthand the cruelty of angry shipmasters.

Anyone looking to start a nautical library--this book would be a perfect first purchase.

The book very frequently uses a very irritating grammer style (at least to me) - the use of the Conditional Perfect and Conditional Perfect Progressive verb tenses - "he would have heard", "Norris would have looked back", "he would have been formally dressed", "he would have been well aware", etc and much more etc. Another issue I have with the writing style is the author's leaping to conclusions with hardly any information to support the leap - e.g. critizing the Captain's use of "full canvas" to get to the whaling grounds when the ship's log makes no mention of bad weather or sailing problems. I'm only 50 pages into the book and reading it is heavy weather.

I received this volume from my daughter for Christmas just for 4 days ago. I asked if she had read it or knew it to be a good read. She said no, but she knows I have an interest in whaling and my love for Melville's Moby Dick (both the book and the original film with Peck, Wells, Basehart, & Genn). I gobbled this book up in 2 sitting in 2 days by the woodstove and a measure of two of rum.

This text covers subjects untouched in Moby Dick and educates the reader of many of the generally prevalent practices of crew desertion and replacement by beachcombers (castaways or other deserters) and island natives, as well as the asylum sought out by ex-slaves on whalers. The reality of the interrelationships of shipmasters, officers, and mates all hailing from New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket interact with the pride (or shame) and prestige associated with a 3- to 5-year voyage all play an intricate role in how a ship and crew are exploited in hte interest of filling the hold with sperm whale oil.

Druett lays out many of the gruesome facts in the preface; this is not a "who done it" so much as an introspective look at what occurred and what was logged (and by whom) about events on the whaler Sharon (1841-1845).

I call it a text, not a novel, because of its educational commentary and with oft-times seemingly legal asides that provide precedent for and explanation of common whaling voyage events (social, disciplinary, and the taking and rending of whales). Darker than Moby Dick because it's true and more shocking than Moby Dick because Ahab's twisted mind and actions were obviously not something unique to the fictitious Pequod. A respected family man ashore on Martha's Vineyard but also a sadistic, single-minded, tyrant on the sea.

Be prepared to view Mystic Seaport, the Charles W. Morgan, New Bedford, Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, East Chop, Farihaven, and Nantucket a bit differently - that is - your perspective widened, your eyes opened, and a bit of romantic innocence will be lost forever if you turn these pages.

Though it's not a bad read it was not what I hoped for. The book starts off good, the history of the people involved and the story up to the mutiny is pretty good. The mutiny itself, though vicious, was not what the title suggest. "The bloodiest mutiny" it said, not quite. There were books like Batavia's Graveyard that had more violent and brutal mutinies. The events after the mutiny get a little drawn out. The second half of the book didn't keep me as interested and I was ready to move on to another book before I finished. I did finish it and would say it's a good read, I just expected a little more(judging from the title) than it offered. 3 1/2 stars is about right.

I love true stories about the days of clipper ships and this one was very interesting and had lots of action! Mutiny on ships at that time happened quite often and I am told that it still happens on small vessels when a captain decides to change the sailing route. This arrived on time and in super condition.