Final Voyage: A Story of Arctic Disaster and One Fateful Whaling Season

Peter Nichol's "Final Voyage" is built around America's whaling industry, dating from Colonial America through the first years of the 20th Century. But the whaling industry is simply framework. Within the pages of "Final Voyage" there is so much more to be found; life in Colonial America, the Quakers, the Puritans, the founding of New Bedford, the Arctic, Eskimos, Pennsylvania oil fields, the textile industry...so much American history...told in such an entertaining and easily accessible manner, even non-history buffs should enjoy the tale. By using passages from a whaler's diary, or the journal kept by a captain's wife, local newspaper accounts and other eyewitness accounts to this unique time in America's history, Nichols not only informs, but thoroughly entertains. Basically Nichols introduces us to several generations of early American families; The Williams - Whaling Captain and family, much of the story is told through the journal of Eliza Williams, and her son. Both of whom accompany Captain Williams across the globe in seach of whale. The Howlands - Quaker businessmen who founded New Bedford and became one of the wealthiest families in early America due to whalin. They are a true rags-to riches-to rags story. The Rotchs - Another family whose fates rose and fell with the whaling industry, and whose story intertwines with both the Howlands and the Williams throughout history. Don't go into "Final Voyage" expecting a true-life disaster story along the lines of "A Perfect Storm". While disaster does strike the whaling industry, the story lies in the tale of men and an industry unwilling to bend to a changing world, and losing everything it had taken over 200 years create. It's not the icy disaster that awaits the whaling fleet, but the journey it took over two centuries to reach the Bering Sea. I have to say I was a bit skeptical when cracking open this book. I was worried it would be a 300 page "Save the Whales" pamphlet, and questioned how informative could a 300 page history book really be when it claimed it was covering two centuries of American History?! Well the deceptively thin book is simply crammed with fascinating tales, well researched and well told. This isn't PETA style propaganda, sure the result of 200 years of whaling is part of the tale, and the destruction to the Eskimo in no less poigniant than the loss of the buffalo to the Plains Indians, but the story is told in a straightforward manner, Nichols does not try to pass judgement on these people, he just lays out the grim facts for the reader. Simply put this is a fantastic tale, and so well told. If you want to get a better glimpse into the real world setting of "Moby Dick", you couldn't ask for a better guide than "Final Voyage".

Only a small portion of this book concerns the so called "Final Voyage", and, as Peter Nichols, tells it, there were other voyages after the so called final one. Instead it is (a) a history of the whaling industry, (b)the saga of the Quakers of New Bedford, in particular the Howland family (c) the effects of Whaling on the Eskimos and their culture, (d) the early history of oil exploration in Pennsylvania, and (e)even more. Thus it is far from a simple adventure yarn, it is history as viewed through the lens of a single industry and it is riveting history brilliantly told. There is so much of interest in this short book! For instance there is a chapter on the uses of whale boats by the North and the prey on Whalers by the South during the Civil War. The author has the gift of making history live. My only real complaint is that I wished maps and more illustrations had been included.

Little did I know that when I signed up for the Final Voyage I would become so knowledgeable about not only the whaling industry itself but the times, histories, peoples, religions & MOST Unexpectantly - the cautionary messages that it speaks of parallel to own times. The book opens 1871 near the Artic Circle with 32 whaling ships; an entire fleet with 1,218 men, women and children, that are frozen in/destroyed by storms/winter. The fleet carried food for no more than a season's cruise, and this season was almost over. The outcome was looking like death by starvation & cold unless the captains and men could act fast with the right plan. What led to this tragic moment was all but predicable, an accident waiting to happen, but if did not, the industry was, ironically, already being frozen out of the world market place by the new sources of oil(rock) being captained by the likes John D. Rockefeller. The most pleasant surprise for me was the author's fine scholarship/writings concerning his rich diary sources including Eliza Williams, whose fly-on-the-bulkhead observations that were all new to her, copious pages full of minute details that made for some of the most vivid and accurate descriptions to come down the pike in a long while. The many other diary sources were also as rich, especially in their honest emotions, they had the calibur & effect of the Ken Burns Civil War PBS series/ detailed- wonderfully heartfelt. The Quaker history alone spun my previous perceptions a completer 180 degrees. The building of the Whale ships where the master carpenters would spend considerable time in the woods looking at vast numbers of trees, observing their aspect to the sun and prevailing winds and the winter cold, all of which affected the density of the cellulose, checking the health of the bark, examining the crooks and boughs that would make the knees that would knit together deck & hull. Well, you get the picture, its another world and your in it, in detail. As the Whale ship is building up, the story is building up, and you the reader, are measuring up to become a first rate whaler yourself. So sign up for the voyage. There are many surprises worth the journey. But most importantly, as you read, think in parallel to our times, and I think you will find, a theme of purpose: that our times will not mirror those of the Final Voyage, we don't have rock oil as a replacement energy. In conclusion, I found my passage/reading the Final Voyage - A WHALE OF A TALE! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!

History is seldom so readable. Splicing straight-up history of whaling in general, Nantucket and New Bedford, and 18th/19th century industry in between whaling voyages as told directly by participants (from well-chosen excepts of journals & letters), every page is intensely interesting and evocative. The author takes great pains to convey the world view of the time and succeeds brilliantly. I came away with very strong impressions of the circumstances and technology that led to Massachusetts becoming the center of what was then one of the world's great and important industries. I also came with new perspectives on religion and unintended consequences. That may sound a bit cryptic, but I guarantee that once you've read this book you will probably have a very different view of Quakers than the benign image taught in the schools! Final Voyage may be read as a cautionary tale in many respects. In particular, by portraying just how rapidly an industry can come to dominate a region, its culture, and infrastructure - and then as quickly collapse - obvious parallels can be drawn to the current hard economic times. Along the same lines, the environmental impact of whaling as a major industry is clearly portrayed as staggering on a global scale. Great reading, great history, timeliness and relevance without preaching (not even a hint). Highly recommended.

Peter Nichols's "Final Voyage: A Story of Arctic Disaster and One Fateful Whaling Season" arrived in the mail today in early afternoon. I had not intended on reading it immediately, as I was already deep into something else, but I took a quick look at the first few pages. Which turned into reading the first chapter which stretched into reading the first few chapters. Which became reading the whole book before suppertime. I think it safe to say that I found it compelling. Although the centerpiece of Nichols' narrative is the disastrous year of 1871 when a fleet of 32 American whaling ships was lost in the Arctic Ocean when unexpected weather conditions failed to clear a needed path through the ice, the scope of his book is much broader, covering the rise and fall of the American whaling industry from the 17th century to the 1890s, and providing a vivid portrait of the manifold dangers and hardships involved. Along the way he examines schisms among the Quakers (a dominant force among Nantucket and New Bedford whaling families), Jewish candle manufacturers of Newport, Rhode Island, and the rise of such competing technologies as petroleum. And as might be expected for a book of the current era, he delves into the ecological impact of whaling and even the disastrous development of "walrusing" (as a profitable sideshow) upon Arctic native peoples, and Nichols draws sharp parallels to the oil industry of our modern era. Nichols's narrative acquires particular force through its concentration upon the fortunes of the Howland brothers' whaling concern which in a remarkably short time went from abundant affluence to utter ruin. He draws heavily upon diaries, letters, and memoirs to give his narrative a remarkable immediacy, and explaining the economic and cultural role of whaling in mid-19th century America. All in all, a fascinating volume, certain to engage the interest of its readers.