In the Heart of the Sea (2000)

Philbrick reconstructs the 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged bull sperm whale and the harrowing three-month ordeal of its crew adrift in three tiny open boats. The account exposes the unforgiving mechanics of nineteenth-century whaling, demonstrating how calculated risks, punishing weather, starvation and navigational errors combined to produce an iconic maritime disaster.