On a November day in 1820, still tethered to the floating hulk of the Essex, Capt. George Pollard and his crew bobbed on the Pacific swells in their tiny whaleboats and sought to comprehend what had happened. In the moment To me, this full account was very interesting and very heartbreaking as well. It doesn’t end as the famed fictional tale does. No, you see the entire crew until their last. This is a good thing though. I can’t stand wondering! I don’t like incomplete studies or tales and I believe this one does its absolute best to be complete. It even gives plenty of resources for those whom wish to press further. I often do.

Well hmm, Darcy's story wasn't all I thought it would be. I loved her in the first two books and was excited to read about her getting her own happily ever after. The summary didn't quite peak my interest but I figured what was inside would be better than the blurb. This book isn’t really gross in its description, but a lot of the imagery it conjures just might be enough to twist sensitive stomachs. Also animal and marine life lovers want to watch out. Other than the fact that it is about a whaling ship there are other things that might be distressing, as the men forage for food. Ahem. blow away from the South American coast, not toward it. And the undocumented claim that all eight Essex survivors became whaleship captains appears to be literary license. But these blemishes are minor. ''In It took me awhile to warm up to Trevor. He's different from Aidan and Shawn, which isn't a bad thing. He's a confident and honest man (not always with himself) who has come to Ireland to build the theater and learn more about his roots at the same time. He didn't count on being mesmerized by Darcy Gallagher.An interpretive dance showing Ahab’s final confrontation with Moby complete with sparkly ribbons and such.

Thar she blows! A papier-mache whale complete with fizzy (heh) stuff coming out of Moby’s blow hole (heh and heh). Severin's eye for detail is keen, his ability to cross cultural boundaries impressive and his rendering of island culture lyrical. He hit pay dirt in Lamalera, Indonesia, an isolated spot. He shadowed a victorious hunts whales with contemporary Indonesians. Both have an intuitive feel for the vulnerability and skill of men in small boats confronting the indifferent sea. Rewards are possible, even great satisfaction, but the costsIt is appalling. And it also is daunting to conceive how these men went farther and farther and farther for the liquid "gold". To the point where they had no idea of the islands or lands around them at all. Resulting in not having the facts, but believing the hype- and thus going 3000 plus miles out of their way for "help". seen Owen Chase who was chief mate of the Essex at the time of the tragedy; I have read his plain and faithful narrative; I have conversed with his son; and all within a few miles of the scene of the catastrophe.'' I was really bothered by Darcy behaving like a spoiled child in one scene at the end, screaming and throwing china and glass objects at the man she loves, leaving him bleeding, both head and foot, isn't cute or funny. I don't enjoy reading about a grown woman behaving that way or are we supposed to think that she is so out of control because she's Irish? Either way, it isn't good.

The real whale was estimated by eyewitnesses to be roughly 85 feet long, as he surfaced immediately after ramming Essex the first time and was observed to be comparable in length to the 88-foot ship. This is still 20 feet longer than the largest confirmed sperm whale. Whether the white whale really was that big or exaggerated as "the one that got away" often is is uncertain. In this era, they did not have harpoons that are shot out of a cannon; they had to row right up next to the whale, and someone with the right skill and strength thrust the harpoon into the side of the whale. These are large mammals, the largest toothed whale, reaching upwards of 80 feet long (now only about 65 feet which has been attributed to the excessive hunting of the largest males who, therefore, did not have a chance to pass on their genes.) and weighing 45 tons. They also have the largest known brain of any extinct or modern animal weighing in at 17 lbs. If they can avoid the harpoons of man and keep out of the reach of Orcas, they can live up to 70 years. Once the harpoon was in the whale, the sailors became the fastest moving humans on the planet as the whale would try to escape by fleeing at upwards of 27 mph while pulling the boat and crew along with it. P.P.S.: I REALLY disliked Owen Chase. I mean, apart from everything related to his character at the beginning of the ship's voyage and the way he put himself in a favourable light when writing down his account of the events, the way he got married then left then lost his wife then re-married immediately then left again then lost this wife too then remarried immediately again (this was repeated a couple of times) ... even if it was his way of coping with what had happened, this was despicable. And he fared much better than Pollard (at least career-wise)! The one scene that should have felt stupid and cliché didn't, which is a tribute to Roberts, and the aftermath of it had me giggling.

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All in all, a decent ending to the series and a good tale, just not great for me. You may feel differently, who knows? had no lure for him. The quest propelled him through Ahab's seas, to Nuku Hiva, the Philippines, Tonga and the southern end of Indonesia. Each of the four places gets a chapter, though they are uneven in drama It was a tale of a whale-man's worst nightmare: of being left in a boat far from land with nothing left to eat or drink and perhaps worst of all......of a whale with the vindictiveness and guile of a man." Island fishermen understand the ocean's plight as much as their own, and an environmentalist ethos pervades this account. Severin might have made more explicit, however, the hunters' recognition of their excruciating

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The great reader in the sky has answered my prayers and made a movie based on this story - starring Chris Hemsworth - so I already count one ironclad reason to watch this. The trailer states that the Essex goes beyond the known world, which no it didn't, but I'm also fairly sure that Owen Chase's jaw wasn't nearly as square as Hemsworth's, so I'm willing to allow poetic license. Also, I may root for the whale. The first trailer is here. Darcy Gallagher wants the fine things in life, travel, fine clothing, and most of all a rich husband to provide them. She sounds rather mercenary but Darcy has a great heart for her family and friends. She just knows what she wants out of life and living forever in Ardmore isn't it. Darcy is the youngest of the Gallaghars- a talented singer, an efficient barmaid and a heart filled with wanderlust. She has always dreamt of travelling and meeting a rich man, and things fall right into her lap when Trevor Magee comes to Ardmore to build a theater that will tie in with the Gallaghers' pub. Sparks immediately fly, and they soon give into their carnal lust. But with both of them hell bent on keeping things casual, how will they fight when fate is actually conspiring to keep them together..and their happiness could be the one that reunites long lost lovers until eternity..

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One of the great fallacies in sea literature and maritime history is that place doesn't matter. It is as if once upon the ocean, a non-place, mariners were stripped of their allegiance to locale and its legacies to The second book, Tears of the Moon, is still my favorite of this series, but this one is close to it. In the end, I think the series as a whole is surprisingly synergistic—i.e. I'd rate the series a solid five stars even though each of the books individually are closer to a four on their own. So that's where I landed with this book - I kind of hated these fools on the Essex, but I did feel a little bit of sympathy. If you ignore the fact that there also might have been intentional racist cannibalism/murder going on. But I'll let you read and decide for yourself on that account. But as the saying goes, dead men tell no tales, so we'll never know for sure. Lo siento, pero con ésta actitud no ha calado. Del romance mejor no hablo porque no me lo he creído. Pareciera que la señora Roberts ha juntado a estos dos porque necesitaba cerrar la trilogía. Si hago memoria, creo que el libro que cierra las sagas medio paranormales de la Roberts son siempre los que fallan, pues creo recordar que casi nunca me han gustado, o el romance me ha parecido un pegote sin sustancia.