Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe - Hardcover

Gibson, Gregory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786244593 ISBN 13: 9780786244591

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2002

Synopsis

Documents the mutiny aboard the whaler Globe, which was organized by twenty-one-year-old Samuel Comstock, his plan to build an island kingdom, and the rescue voyage of the Navy schooner Dolphin.

About this title

About the Author

Gregory Gibson is a rare book and manuscript dealer specializing in nautical history and is based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is the author of one previous book, Goneboy: A Walkabout, which was selected by Publishers Weekly as a Book of the Year.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1978, a sailor's log of apparently little value surfaced in Vevay, Ind., and the notebook was eventually discovered to have been penned in 1827 by a 17-year-old sailor named Augustus Strong, stationed aboard the Dolphin, a U.S. Navy schooner dispatched to rescue surviving members of a mutiny in the South Pacific. Using Strong's 150-page record as a primary source, Gibson (Gone Boy), a collector of rare maritime books, retells the shocking tale of the gore-drenched mutiny aboard the whaler Globe. The mutiny was led by rogue Samuel Comstock so the 21-year-old could sail to the remote Marshall Islands, where he intended to build a kingdom for himself and enlist the natives in his private army. Word of the mutiny prompted the rescue voyage of the Dolphin and Strong's personal ledger. While Gibson diligently recounts the building of the Globe and the history of Nantucket whaling as well as the life and hard work aboard a whaler the chronicling of the mutiny lacks punch and the key figures are devoid of significant character. By the time Gibson personally visits the isle of Comstock's landing and death, readers might find it difficult to share the author's interest in what comes across as a bloody though bland story. Illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786244593
• ISBN 13: 9780786244591
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 477