The first experience was a foretaste of the trouble that the once lucky boat was going to experience on its last voyage. The inexperienced crew was terrified, but the captain managed to the right the ship, even though his commands came later than expected. Trouble for this old ship started early in the journey when it hit a storm, and the impact almost tipped the boat over. For many of them, this was their first voyage. African Americans had also replaced the Nantucket sailors, so the crew was relatively new. On this tragic voyage, the Nantucket ship was under the command of a new captain, George Pollard. The survivors included the five Nantucket men who chose to stay together and the three offshore men who decided to stay at the island. In the end, only eight of the crew members survived. The voyage from the shipwreck to the south coast took 90 days, and through the horrendous conditions in the sea, the survivors succumbed one after another to disease, hunger, and thirst.

Some of the crew decided to seek refuge in the South American coast, which was 3,000 miles away out of fear of cannibals that were said to inhabit the islands on the west. The routine journey from Nantucket across the Pacific turned tragic when an eight-ton whale rammed the ship a few times, causing it to sink. In 1820, a Wales ship named Essex set sail on a whales’ voyage. In The Heart of the Sea is a story about a shipwreck and the events that follow. Nathaniel lives in Nantucket Island, where he enjoys sailing in the waters around the island whenever he is not engaged in his writing. Some of his other works, including Mayfair, Sea of Glory, and Revenge of the Whale, have earned him numerous awards in the writing world. In 2015, a movie, Heart of the Sea, was developed based on this novel. Nathaniel Philbrick is a historical fiction writer best known for his Heart of the Sea novel.

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