You were probably forced to read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick at some point. It’s the classic tale of one man’s obsession with a giant white whale. What many of us don’t know is that the work of fiction was inspired by harrowing real-life events that took place aboard the whaling vessel Essex. Nathaniel Philbrick’s gripping chronicle of that tale, In The Heart of The Sea, also became a best-seller. … [Read more...]