Renowned as the creators of New England's great fishing schooners, the shipbuilders of Essex, Massachusetts, have a 300-year history that is, as the subtitle of this impressive book attests, a chronicle of Yankee endeavor. This book documents in text, appendices, photos and other illustrations the rise of the trade from 1634 to its glory days in the final decades of the nineteenth century, and its decline in the first four decades of this century. Dana Story, author of Growing Up in a Shipyard, has a well-deserved reputation for thorough historical research and for the ease and wit of his writing. Here he brings these qualities to a book that is in large part his own family's history. His forebears settled in Essex in 1637 and began building vessels in 1813.

The gripping first-hand narrative of the whaling ship disaster that inspired Melville’s Moby-Dick and informed Nathaniel Philbrick’s monumental history, In the Heart of the Sea In 1820, the Nantucket whaleship Essex was rammed by an angry sperm whale thousands of miles from home in the South Pacific. The Essex sank, leaving twenty crew members drifting in three small open boats for ninety days. Through drastic measures, eight men survived to reveal this astonishing tale. The Narrative of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex, by Owen Chase, has long been the essential account of the Essex’s doomed voyage. But in 1980, a new account of the disaster was discovered, penned late in life by Thomas Nickerson, who had been the fifteen-year-old cabin boy of the ship. This discovery has vastly expanded and clarified the history of an event as grandiose in its time as the Titanic. This edition presents Nickerson’s never-before-published chronicle alongside Chase’s version. Also included are the most important other contemporary accounts of the incident, Melville’s notes in his copy of the Chase narrative, and journal entries by Emerson and Thoreau. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Shipbuilding and shipping have always been key elements in the life of Essex. Since the seventeenth century, the men and women of the lower Connecticut River Valley sustained maritime traditions that spanned the globe in splendid wooden sailing vessels. Their accomplishments include building the first warship of the Connecticut navy and the world's first submarine. They also served as packet ship captains, navigators and skilled crew members who crossed the Atlantic. The Essex area was also home to dedicated craftsmen who produced some of the finest yachts ever built. Noted historians Wick Griswold and Ruth Major detail one village's important role in American maritime history.

"Shipbuilding and shipping have always been key elements in the life of Essex. Since the seventeenth century, the men and women of lower Connecticut River Valley sustained maritime traditions that spanned the globe in splendid wooden sailing vessels. Noted historians ... detail one village's important role in American maritime history."--Back cover