In the Heart of the Sea: Chp. 5-7

     In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, he describes the challenges and the ultimate doom that the whale hunter crew of the Essex will come to face. The author uses telegraphic and terse sentences to show how the events are becoming more dangerous and crucial for the survival of the crew; then Philbrick uses excerpts to describe the first point of view of the sailors and how the ramming of the sperm whale scared them and even scarred them psychologically like the first mate Chase, also using the diction of navigation and sailing within his writing to draw in the reader of how the crew was living before and after the ramming of the ship. Philbrick's purpose is to illustrate the adventure of death and suffering the crew of the Essex has suffered and how it ties to the fictional novel of  Moby Dick, also to describe the possible what ifs the crew could have taken to save themselves but have actually taken the most likely choice of following their intuition or "plan". This book has an audience in mind of those that enjoy the story of navigational and historical content and who are fascinated with the true tale that is tied to Moby Dick.

Vocabulary:

• bailing: to dip water out of the boat with a bucket
• tempestuous: violent, stormy
• arduous: requiring great exertion

Tone: suspenseful, pitiful

Rhetorical Strategies:

• Examples: "'All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might, in all human probability, ahve been avoided, had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti...'" (pg: 98)
• Irony: "Without their ship  to protect them, the hunters had become the prey." (pg: 116)
• Analogy: "On the morning of November 20, 1820, sperm whales were not the only creatures filling the ocean with clicking sounds; there was also Owen Chase, busily nailing a piece of canvas to the bottom of an upturned whaleboat." (pg:87)
• Telegraphic: " The ship shuddered with each wave." (pg: 91)
• Simile: " Like a whale dying in a slow-motion flurry, the Essex in dissolution made for a grim and disturbing sight, her joints and seams working violently in the waves."

Questions:

1. How did the sailors modified the whale boats to become boats of navigation?
2. What effect does the telegraphic sentences add to the book? 
3. Why didn't the sailors take the risk of reaching unknown than following the "plan" of heading toward South America?

     "That evening Richard Peterson, the sole African American on their boat, led them in prayers and a few hymns." (pg: 113)