I saw a movie review with Ron Howard about his new movie coming out and had to read the book.

In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex
by Nathaniel Philbrick

This is the true story that inspired the fictional "Moby Dick" classic. It reads kind of like a review/mash up of all the books that came before including MD but adds some more recent info found in letters from survivors that was never published.
The author also includes references to other stories and research about cannibalism, dehydration, and starvation to explain the conditions the men went through. Plus what was know and when it was known about that part of the ocean that set them on their course and struggles to survive.

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Read this a few years ago. The scene in the lifeboat (yes, spoiler ahead) where they're drawing straws to see who's going to die and who's going to kill him so they can all eat was too horrible to contemplate.

kypaddler