In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

In detailing the process of hunting and rendering whales so clearly, the author likens a whaling ship to a floating factory designed to drift from place to place while producing oil—another parallel between the whaling industry and the Industrial Revolution. The Essex functioned almost like a mobile oil rig, extracting the precious liquid from the depths of the sea at the expense of the blood, sweat, and tears of the men aboard. Seen in this light, it is no wonder that Philbrick characterizes the work of whaling as ultimately “desensitize[ing] the men to the awesome wonder of the whale” (65); whalers would refer to the tremendous beasts by the number of barrels of oil they were likely to produce rather than as living creatures.

This desensitization would ultimately lead, in the eyes of the author, to the overfishing that led many ships out into deeper and lonelier water. Drawing a parallel to the hunting of buffalo in the American plains, Philbrick highlights the intrinsic wastefulness that goes along with certain kinds of hunting. Buffalo hunts were extraordinarily wasteful since the animals were too often hunted purely for their pelts rather than for food (as the Indigenous populations had done). With whaling the situation differed in that whales are not usually hunted as a food source; even Indigenous Alaskans, for instance, typically hunt whales for their blubber and bone. Regardless, Philbrick suggests that the scale of whale oil hunting was ultimately self-destructive, with the hunt that sunk the Essex serving as a microcosm of the perils (financial and physical) of unsustainable consumption.

Some men who went to sea on whaling expeditions surely loved the task for its own sake, but Philbrick suggests that many simply saw it as a means to an end, no more difficult or dangerous than many other paying jobs, such as coal mining or particular kinds of factory work. The simple fact of the matter was that every whale captured and processed “brought the Nantucketer closer to returning home to his loved ones” (65). The fact that the men were so close to the midpoint of their journey when the Essex sunk gives the disaster a sense of tragic irony.

Philbrick’s account of the immediate aftermath of the sinking emphasizes the crew’s tenacity and ingenuity. Despite the shocking, unprecedented nature of the wreck, they managed to salvage a great deal of equipment and resources. It is here that the book begins to sketch out the theme of The Endurance of the Human Spirit. As in many tragedies, the act of achieving a goal greatly boosted the crew’s morale. Once their initial tasks had been accomplished, however, the reality of their situation began to set in: “The same men who had worked so cheerfully at modifying the whaleboats were suddenly bludgeoned by despair” (94).

This vacillation between hope and misery would define much of the voyage that followed, so part of the officers’ task was to foster the sense of shared purpose as much as possible. However, once the men had assessed their situation and begun to debate where to sail, the difference between their captain and first mate became stark. Though it’s impossible to know with certainty what would have happened if the survivors had gone with Pollard’s plan, Philbrick heavily implies that the decision to try to reach South America was a mistake. At the same time, his account emphasizes the complexities of leadership, especially in a crisis. Pollard’s reluctance to cause strife among the crew wasn’t unreasonable, as cohesiveness and cooperation would be important factors going forward. Likewise, Chase’s drive would help inspire the survivors to persevere through hardship. Philbrick’s account suggests that the ensuing events were not so much a failure on either officer’s part as they were an unfortunate confluence of character traits and circumstances: Chase had the forcefulness but not the judgment of a captain, while Pollard had the reverse.