In the Wake of Madness

Whenever I take a longer flight, as I did a few weeks ago, I always purchase a book from the bargain block of our local bookstore (Nonesuch Books). This time I selected an engaging book called "In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon" by Joan Druett. While sailing the whaling grounds of the south Pacific the captain of the Sharon was murdered by a few mutinous crewman. The single handed recapture of the ship by the Mainer Benjamin Clough was so well known it was reproduced in a stage play. The book is extremely well written and leaves the reader with a sense of the vagaries of whaling in the mid nineteenth century. The best line of the book:

"Whaling captains were men who left their souls at home."