Quote by Nathaniel Philbrick

“The heroic and often tragic stories of American whalemen were renowned. They sailed the world’s oceans and brought back tales filled with bravery, perseverance,…

— Eric Jay Dolin

“I pictured the mother whale, exhausted from labor, pushing her calf up to the skin of the water. The miracle of breath in the…

— Megan Mayhew Bergman

“As most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at this same New Bedford, thence to embark on their voyage, it…

— Herman Melville

“Huge waves, a mile from crest to crest, roared down upon the pygmies that were to be their prey; sometimes the entire surface of…

— Nicholas Monsarrat

“And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye ship-owners of Nantucket! Beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean…

— Herman Melville

Captain Ahab was a man possessed with an obsessional drive to pursue the white whale which had harmed him - which had torn his…

— Edward Said

“There is a sailor saying: To survive a sudden gale, it takes a quantity of skill, a dose of luck, and if you will,…

— Modern Mariner

“We did not get on much further, for in another moment we were caught by a terrific squall from the West that snapped the…

— Homer

“They loved the sea. They taught themselves to sail, to navigate and read the weather. Without their mother's knowledge and long before she thought…

— James Carlos Blake

A soft Sea washed around the House A Sea of Summer Air And rose and fell the magic Planks That sailed without a care…

— Emily Dickinson

“fifty years ago did Nathan Swain kill fifteen whales between a sunrise and a sunset. And that harpoon—so like a corkscrew now—was flung”

— Herman Melville

“His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow,…

— Herman Melville