"Now a major motion picture"--Container.

"First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. 2000. Published in Penguin Books 2001"--Title page verso.

Includes an excerpt from the author's book, Valiant ambition (8 pages).

Includes bibliographical references (pages [279]-289) and index.

In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage to hunt whales. Fifteen months later the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, the 20-man crew set out in three small boats for South America, almost 3,000 miles away. Three months later, only eight were left alive, the survivors having been forced to eat the bodies of their dead shipmates. This book shares a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of the whaling tradition, with deep resonance in literature and American history, and in the life of the Nantucket community.