In the Wake of Madness
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After more than a century of silence, the true story of one of history's most notorious mutinies is revealed in Joan Druett's riveting "nautical murder mystery" (USA Today). On May 25, 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year later, while most of the crew was out hunting, Captain Howes Norris was brutally murdered. When the men in the whaleboats returned, they found four crew members on board, three of whom were covered in blood, the other screaming from atop the mast. Single-handedly, the third officer launched a surprise attack to recapture the Sharon, killing two of the attackers and subduing the other. An American investigation into the murder was never conducted--even when the Sharon returned home three years later, with only four of the original twenty-nine crew on board. Joan Druett, a historian who's been called a female Patrick O'Brian by the Wall Street Journal, dramatically re-creates the mystery of the ill-fated whaleship and reveals a voyage filled with savagery under the command of one of the most ruthless captains to sail the high seas.
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A very readable history of the whale ship Sharon which sailed from Martha's Vineyard in the USA to whaling grounds of the South-Pacific first in 1841 under her captain Howes Norris. He was a less than pleasant character - but most likely not an uncommon sort of whaling captain - highly driven to achieve his ends, cruel and uncompromising with those under his charge.
I enjoyed the way the author told the story of the Sharon through the diaries of two men on the ship, and compared these to the ship's log, which was sanitised by the captain, and omitted all of the dubious actions he took. Conversely, the diaries of Benjamin Clough, third mate under Norris and Andrew White, ships cooper recorded all the details Norris omitted to ensure he could not be held to the law.
Other contemporary ships of the Sharon are written into this narrative in a way that they build context around the story - Herman Melville is also a regular in the narrative of this book - he was a contemporary of Norris's and was active in other whaling ships in the same seas. Aspects of Melvilles Moby Dick are raised against some of the happenings of the South pacific which potentially shed a little light on where his story came from.
Norris's actions included putting men ashore (kicking them off the ship) and picking up new crew without recording them (against the law), and falsifying the cause of death of various crew, most of who were beaten to death, including the most horrific example of George Babcock, who was systematically tormented and beaten, essentially made to work to his death. One of the worst aspects was that the senior crew did nothing to stop the torturous behaviour, all choosing to stay on side with the captain. Those crew who did stand up and tried to protect Babcock were quickly put ashore.
Norris got his just deserts, brutally murdered, and the story takes a twist, with a new captain but equally poor luck with the whaling. I won't spoil the entire story for others who might read this book.
But I will say, that after the captains death the book follows the lives of Thomas Harlock Smith and Nathan Skiff Smith, who were cousins and first and second officer respectively on Sharon under Norris, as well as Ben Clough and Andrew White, whose diaries are so central to this book.
This is the second of Joan Druett's books I have read, and while this one didn't match up to Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World, it was a good quick read, with a lot of interesting things included.
3.5 stars, rounded down.
