http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
xvi, 302 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months tested just how far humans could go in their battle against the sea as, one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease and fear. ... This is a timeless account of the human spirit under extreme duress, but it is also a story about a community and about the kind of men and women who lived in a forbidding, remote island like Nantucket. -- Dust jacket.
Preface: February 23, 1821 -- Nantucket -- Knockdown -- First blood -- The lees of fire -- The attack -- The plan -- At sea -- Centering down -- The island -- The whisper of necessity -- Games of chance -- In the eagle's shadow -- Homecoming -- Consequences -- Epilogue: Bones.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-289) and index.
National Book Award for Non-fiction, 2000
Accelerated Reader AR UG 8.8 14.0 45207.
Reading Counts RC High School 11 18 Quiz: 31543 Guided reading level: NR.
Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc