At one time whale oil lit the lamps of the world, and the New England whalers harvested many thousands of the
leviathans that provided that oil. Marc Songini's lively book tells the story of one man and his family, but
more than that, it provides a fascinating, in-depth account of the demise of the entire whaling industry.
Thomas William Williams and his tiny, courageous and pregnant wife, Eliza, boarded the Florida to
begin a three year whale hunt on November 7, 1858. This exciting story follows Williams from 1840 through 1880.
Here is the story of the Stone Fleet: the whalers which were loaded with New England granite and then
scuttled to block Confederate shipping out of Charleston, South Carolina, in an effort to stymie the Confederate
Navy. Here too is the story of the intrepid Confederate ship Alabama, whose main mission was to capture
and destroy whaling ships; a job subsequently carried on by the Shenandoah. These two ships were
responsible for burning and sinking a great many whaling ships, with the Shenandoah inadvertently
continuing this mission past the end of the Civil War, to the point where she was considered a pirate vessel.
Most of the remainder of the whaling fleet self-destructed in the forbidding Arctic seas.
Songini's years of research produced a book that is factual enough to suit the strictest academic, and yet
thrilling enough to read like a great novel. His excellence in writing captures the excitement of the hunt, the
fear and heart pumping excitement of loss and victory at war, and the terror and great hardships spawned by
Arctic disaster.
If you are fascinated by sea stories, and a history devotee, this book will give you hours of great reading.
It is thoroughly entertaining along with being educational. There is an extensive bibliography and index, and
several pages of black and white photos add visual impact to the story.