Final Voyage: A Story Of Arctic Disaster And One Fateful Whaling Season

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In 1871, an entire fleet of whaling ships was caught in an arctic ice storm and destroyed. Though few lives were lost, the damage would forever shape one of America's most distinctive commodities: oil.New Bedford, Massachusetts, was fertile ground for this country's first multimillion-dollar industry. Founded by assiduous Quaker merchants seeking refuge for their austere religion, the town also lent unparalleled access to the high seas. The combination would lead to what would become the most successful whaling industry in America, and with it, the world's first oil hegemony. Oyl, or oil derived from whale blubber, revolutionized New England commerce. And as intrepid New Bedford whalers ventured farther into uncharted waters in search of untapped resources, the town saw incomparable wealth. But with all of the town's resources tethered to this dangerous industry and the fickle sea, success was fragile.Final Voyage is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America's first oil industry. Peter Nichols deftly captures what New Bedford life was like for its Quaker inhabitants and, using a wealth of primary resources, has created a vivid picture of the evolution of whaling and how its demise was destined even before that devastating voyage. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Hardcover: 304 pages

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons; 1st edition (October 15, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 039915602X

ISBN-13: 978-0399156021

Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #723,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #137 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture #223 in Books > History > Arctic & Antarctica #498 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Transportation > History > Ships

First off, "caveat emptor", as the saying goes. (Geez, I hope I spelled that right. My Latin is a little rusty!) If you are looking for "just" a straight-forward adventure story this may not be quite what you expected and you might be a bit disappointed. However, if you are the sort of reader who doesn't mind an author meandering wherever his curiosity might lead him, then I think you will enjoy this book. The "trapping" of the 1871 fleet in the ice off of the Alaskan coast actually takes up a minor portion of the book. (Northeast winds blew ice away from the coast and opened up a narrow channel so the ships could pursue whales to the north. Unfortunately, the favorable winds only lasted a short while. When they shifted and blew from the southwest, the ice moved back in and trapped the fleet.) Most of the book deals with other topics that capture the author's fancy: Religious persecution of Quakers in New England; the rise and fall of the Quaker community in New Bedford, Massachusetts; mini-biographies of the seafaring/merchant Williams and Howland families of New Bedford; a brief history of the whaling industry; the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania and the start of Standard Oil; etc. Personally, I didn't mind all the digressions from the main topic of the book. Mr. Nichols writes very well and a lot of this stuff was fascinating. (Did you know that Quakers could be, and were, whipped or executed for failure to remove a hat?!.....Also, one reason Quakers were so successful in business, besides hard-work, was their reputation for scrupulous honesty. Apparently nice guys can sometimes finish first.) However, I could also see that if you had your heart set on reading a rip-roaring adventure story set in stormy seas you might feel a tad bit "cheated". That being said, I found this to be a first-rate read... very interesting and enjoyable. Please just be aware that, depending on your expectations, you may be getting more or less than you bargained for.

You should be warned that this is rather less a tale of maritime disaster and Arctic suffering than it is a history of whaling in Nantucket and New Bedford, mixed with an account of the prominence of Quakers in that industry, with a focus on a couple of particular families. I suspect most readers want to get to the "good part" where the unlucky whalers get trapped in the Alaskan ice, but if so, they will be frustrated, as the author endlessly delays reaching that point.There's a great deal of cutting from one locale to another and jumping back and forth in time. And way too much of "The aptly-named Sir Not-Relevant-to-this-Tale once lived near Boston, and was the grandson of So-and-So, and married the fifth cousin of What's-Her-Face. He owned a wharf. This...is not his story."My advance copy had all of two illustrations and no maps. More of the former and some of the latter would've substantially improved the book.The author did significant research, it appears, and is clearly enthusiastic about the topic, but this is a workman-like effort at best, and given the nature of the actual denouement, I think the marketing of the book is rather misleading. It's all right for what it is--as long as you're looking for a general survey of 19th century American whaling.

This is a good book but the promo material is misleading.The title of the book and the liner notes hint that the primary focus of the book is the ill-fated whaling journey that stranded the whalers north of Alaska.In reality, the book only deals with this event in an almost cursory way. The stranded ships are dealt with in small doses throughout the book and in a summary way at the very end of the book. Rather, the book's main focus is the developmental history of the whaling industry in New England and the families who comprised it.It's all interesting but not at all what I expected. This is no detailed account of the ill-fated whaling venture to which the promo material refers.

I bought this book on my travels without first having had the opportunity to review the comments by the consumers (readers) on . I enjoyed the brief history of the whaling industry and its place in New England's rich history during the 18th and 19th centuries. I particularly enjoyed the author's interposing in the narrative comments taken from the actual logbooks of some of the whale ships to corroborate his historical research. However, Nichols wandered from the whaling history to the religious persecution of the Quakers in New England in the 17th century to the discovery of oil in Western Pennsylvania, and the human interest story of the Howland family in New Bedford.The back of the book's dust cover is very misleading and if one is anticipating this is going to be an exciting, hair-raising, spine tingling adventure of the final voyage of a 19th century whaling ship and crew on the open seas, you will be disappointed. The narrative of the incarcerated whale fleet in the Arctic Ice in 1871 doesn't even come into focus until the 15th and 16th chapters,(the book has 18 chapters)a grand total of 20 pages!The book can hardly be construed as "one of the most gripping sea stories....", "a haunting story on the grandest scale", or "a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative". Quotes taken from the back of the dust cover!

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