The New Bedford whaling fleet was the most numerous and arranging in the world, setting off on voyages that often lasted for years and extended as far as the Antarctic and Siberia. This title features over 700 detailed photos from the world's finest collection of scrimshaw, the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

A “brilliant and provocative” (The New Yorker) celebration of Melville’s masterpiece—from the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea, Valiant Ambition, and In the Hurricane's Eye One of the greatest American novels finds its perfect contemporary champion in Why Read Moby-Dick?, Nathaniel Philbrick’s enlightening and entertaining tour through Melville’s classic. As he did in his National Book Award–winning bestseller In the Heart of the Sea, Philbrick brings a sailor’s eye and an adventurer’s passion to unfolding the story behind an epic American journey. He skillfully navigates Melville’s world and illuminates the book’s humor and unforgettable characters—finding the thread that binds Ishmael and Ahab to our own time and, indeed, to all times. An ideal match between author and subject, Why Read Moby-Dick? will start conversations, inspire arguments, and make a powerful case that this classic tale waits to be discovered anew. “Gracefully written [with an] infectious enthusiasm…”—New York Times Book Review

Entire art and craft of whaling is depicted, from views of the galley and the sight of a whale breaching, to examples of scrimshaw art and a version of a "Nantucket sleigh ride." 64 plates.

Sixty of the celebrated marine artist's paintings capture the rich heritage of the golden era of commercial sailing and the ships, steamboats, whalers, and colorful ports of nineteenth-century America