Whale Hunter (Seafarers' Voices)

A harpooner in the whale ship Charles W. Morgan from 1849 to 1853, Nelson Cole Haley embarked on a hunt that took him from New Bedford, Massachusetts, around the world. Called a real-life version of Moby Dick, his memoir lends an authentic voice to those who were part of a high-risk business that included working on slippery whale carcasses surrounded by sharks and being towed at high speed by a harpooned whale, known as a Nantucket sleigh ride. In addition to his thrilling accounts of whale hunts, Haley also recounts the tales told by sailors waiting for the next whale sighting and anecdotes of life in the South Seas.