I'm not hugely into whaling. I've read a few books about it, but it's not my favorite niche. Since my first book in this genre was "Two Years Before the Mast" and Richard H. Dana was very prejudiced against whalers (painting a very grim picture of the Russian whaling ship he visits) I kind of scoffed at whaling. The most famous first hand account of a whaling cruise is "Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex" by Owen Chase. The problem with the story of the Essex is that everyone is already familiar with it. Be it through Moby Dick, or by the movie adaptation. It's a good read, specially if topped up with Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea", which was the basis for the film. But this book I'm reading (The Cruise of the Cachalot) is a good starting point for whaling and nautical nonfiction. The author ( an experienced British seaman) wrote the book in 1898 about his first whaling trip (after years serving in merchant vessels) with the general public in mind, and it's well worth a shot. Beautiful descriptions of the battles between men and the leviathan, lovely visits to faraway islands, and a honest overall account of the situation of sailors in the late 19th century. Now, if you want something more exciting, glamorous, and a little older, you can't go wrong with Owen Chase's book. Shit, I just realized I don't know how to break lines here. I've never written so much in this board.
OK, I started talking about this and now I can't stop.
So, if you wanna read modern books about whaling I can't recommend enough "Leviathan" by Eric J. Dolin. It's by far the most comprehensive and accessible book about the American whaling industry. It's deep, well researched and thick with information, but at the same time it's not academic or dependent on the reader's baggage. The one (obvious) criticism I got for this book is that it's too American. It can't help looking at whaling from a purely American perspective. He acknowledges the British, but at times ignoring the Basque and Portuguese (except when it comes to the Portuguese participation in the New England whaling industry). Then again, it IS supposed to be a book about the history of the American whale fishery.
And my final recommendation of whaling books is "Final Voyage" by Peter Nichols. This is a book about the great whaling disaster of 1871, which is told from the perspective of several persons involved in it. If you're not familiar with it, it was a fateful arctic whaling which trapped over 30 vessels in the ice before they could make it through the strait of Behring. There's an IMMENSE wealth of first hand accounts in this book. The story is told through excerpts from people's mail, diaries, and published narratives. The book is so rich with characters and stories that at times it's hard to keep track of who's who or who was doing what. Despite that, it's a treasure trove of first hand accounts of that period (and not just sailors and sea life, but also accounts of women and even children who were onboard some of the ships). Not to mention that the disaster of 1871 is as much a polar survival subject as it is a whaling one.
Now, my favorite subgenre is voyages of exploration and discovery. If I had to choose one story to begin with, I'd go with Pigafetta's narrative of the first circumnavigation (A.K.A. Magellan's Voyage). You couple that with a good modern book like Laurence Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World", that will filling the gaps of all the shit you didn't understand, and you're set. You can find Pigafetta's book for free in Gutenberg project and in the Internet Archive (both in revised modern Italian and translated to English). Sorry about this frens, I didn't mean to attempt thread hijacking, but it was stronger than me.
I'm not hugely into whaling. I've read a few books about it, but it's not my favorite niche. Since my first book in this genre was "Two Years Before the Mast" and Richard H. Dana was very prejudiced against whalers (painting a very grim picture of the Russian whaling ship he visits) I kind of scoffed at whaling. The most famous first hand account of a whaling cruise is "Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex" by Owen Chase. The problem with the story of the Essex is that everyone is already familiar with it. Be it through Moby Dick, or by the movie adaptation. It's a good read, specially if topped up with Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea", which was the basis for the film. But this book I'm reading (The Cruise of the Cachalot) is a good starting point for whaling and nautical nonfiction. The author ( an experienced British seaman) wrote the book in 1898 about his first whaling trip (after years serving in merchant vessels) with the general public in mind, and it's well worth a shot. Beautiful descriptions of the battles between men and the leviathan, lovely visits to faraway islands, and a honest overall account of the situation of sailors in the late 19th century. Now, if you want something more exciting, glamorous, and a little older, you can't go wrong with Owen Chase's book. Shit, I just realized I don't know how to break lines here. I've never written so much in this board.
OK, I started talking about this and now I can't stop. So, if you wanna read modern books about whaling I can't recommend enough "Leviathan" by Eric J. Dolin. It's by far the most comprehensive and accessible book about the American whaling industry. It's deep, well researched and thick with information, but at the same time it's not academic or dependent on the reader's baggage. The one (obvious) criticism I got for this book is that it's too American. It can't help looking at whaling from a purely American perspective. He acknowledges the British, but at times ignoring the Basque and Portuguese (except when it comes to the Portuguese participation in the New England whaling industry). Then again, it IS supposed to be a book about the history of the American whale fishery.
And my final recommendation of whaling books is "Final Voyage" by Peter Nichols. This is a book about the great whaling disaster of 1871, which is told from the perspective of several persons involved in it. If you're not familiar with it, it was a fateful arctic whaling which trapped over 30 vessels in the ice before they could make it through the strait of Behring. There's an IMMENSE wealth of first hand accounts in this book. The story is told through excerpts from people's mail, diaries, and published narratives. The book is so rich with characters and stories that at times it's hard to keep track of who's who or who was doing what. Despite that, it's a treasure trove of first hand accounts of that period (and not just sailors and sea life, but also accounts of women and even children who were onboard some of the ships). Not to mention that the disaster of 1871 is as much a polar survival subject as it is a whaling one.
Now, my favorite subgenre is voyages of exploration and discovery. If I had to choose one story to begin with, I'd go with Pigafetta's narrative of the first circumnavigation (A.K.A. Magellan's Voyage). You couple that with a good modern book like Laurence Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World", that will filling the gaps of all the shit you didn't understand, and you're set. You can find Pigafetta's book for free in Gutenberg project and in the Internet Archive (both in revised modern Italian and translated to English). Sorry about this frens, I didn't mean to attempt thread hijacking, but it was stronger than me.
Hey. Thank you for all this.