Rating: 
Summary: There are better versions
Review: After making an honest attempt at reading Heffernan's account of the mutiny on the Globe I decided the story was much too interesting to be spoiled by his telling of events.
Gregory Gibson's excellent book Demon of the Waters tells the same story in a far more exciting and informative manner, a real page-turner at the level of Junger and Philbrick.
Rating: 
Summary: History that reads like a rippin' good maritime tale
Review: First let me say I was very impressed with Heffernan's meticulous scholarship. This is a well documented history, complete with end notes and appendicies. That being said, where this book excells is in the telling of the tale. Heffernan is a master storyteller. He brings the story of Samuel Comstock to life, beginning with his early days in Nantucket and later in New York city, showing how his early obsession with war gaming versus other New York gangs stayed with him until his untimely death at 20 years old. Comstock really was a tragic figure in the classic sense: his own mania which was responsible for his leadership (although a usurped one) led to his downfall. The mutiny is a bloody horrowshow. The time spent among the natives of the Mili atoll is sumptuous as well as nerve-wracking for the marooned survivors. While I can't compare "Mutiny" to Melville's classic "Moby Dick," I would have to say that were Melville alive today, he would heap praise upon this soon-to-be classic of seafaring documentay/drama.
Rating:
Summary: There are better versions
Review: Heffernan describes the story of the Globe, a tragic whaling ship that went through a mutiny led by Samuel Comstock. The book goes into the childhood of Samuel, the ship prior to the mutiny, the mutiny, and more importantly, the aftermath. Heffernan describes the life of a Nantucket shipsman, life on a ship, and life on an island with natives. The survival of two Americans on a foreign tropical island is truly fascinating, and is gripping. The story itself is a great piece of non-fiction. Definitely movie making material. Unfortunately, the author couldn't convey this excitement in the most efficient way. His language tends not to be fluid. He goes into details that are unnecessary and sometimes boring. He also tends to bring in first person perspectives and quotes which interrupt the continuity, and are sometimes hard to decipher. An interesting story, but the book could have definitely been written better. I would recommend this book if you're sick of typical fiction though
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable, engaging story in a boring package.
Review: Heffernan describes the story of the Globe, a tragic whaling ship that went through a mutiny led by Samuel Comstock. The book goes into the childhood of Samuel, the ship prior to the mutiny, the mutiny, and more importantly, the aftermath. Heffernan describes the life of a Nantucket shipsman, life on a ship, and life on an island with natives. The survival of two Americans on a foreign tropical island is truly fascinating, and is gripping. The story itself is a great piece of non-fiction. Definitely movie making material. Unfortunately, the author couldn't convey this excitement in the most efficient way. His language tends not to be fluid. He goes into details that are unnecessary and sometimes boring. He also tends to bring in first person perspectives and quotes which interrupt the continuity, and are sometimes hard to decipher. An interesting story, but the book could have definitely been written better. I would recommend this book if you're sick of typical fiction though
Rating: 
Summary: A window into the 19th century ... and an enduring mystery
Review: I enjoyed this book because Thomas Heffernan's wide use of primary sources provides a window into early 19th American life, with a focus on Nantucket, New York and the whaling industry. But the real center of Herffernan's book is the enduring mystery of Samuel Comstock. The Globe mutiny would never have happened without Comstock, but where did he get his ideas for a South Seas utopia? How did he come to mix real-world action with such fantastic and impractical visions? How did Samuel Comstock become a violent visionary, while the rest of his family is so ordinary? I found much of interest in this book, but the central fascination is the mysterious character and extraordinary actions of mutineer Samuel Comstock.
Rating:
Summary: Savagery on the High Seas
Review: I found this story interesting and the author's rendition engaging. Unlike other reviewers, I was interested in Heffernan's exploration of Comstock's physical and mental development for what light it sheds on his subsequent fantasy and savagery. This earth has seen psychopaths before today's headlines and we may yet learn how they emerge by examining those current and historical in as much detail as possible.
Availability of original and valid source material could not have been substantial and so I appreciated Heffernan's effort at accuracy. It is true that Comstock disappears from the story early but I would have been disappointed if Heffernan had not followed the mutiny survivors' stories to the end of their lives. To follow them was to complete the tale. Obviously their lives had to be defined forever after by what they experienced at Comstock's hand on the high sea.
If you like this story and the whaling period, then I recommend In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Rating:
Summary: Horror On The High Sea
Review: I read this book while sitting on a beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As I gazed at the ocean in the direction of Nantucket, the bloody horror of this mutiny sent chills up my spin. Mutiny On The Globe is not for the weak at heart. It's a graphic and telling story of life, death and survival. Heffernan brings this horrifying story to you full force. The Fatal Journey Of Samuel Comstock is for most New Englanders interested in our old whaling history and tales of the high seas. Fine Job Heffernan!
Rating:
Summary: "I am the bloody man, I have the bloody hand"--S. Comstock
Review: Mutiny on the Globe by Thomas Farel Heffernan is a story written for the causual history reader about a disgruntled and insane whaleman Samuel Comstock who, in 1822, sought to live out his horrible fantasy. Comstock's dream was to take over a ship by killing the captain and his mates, sailing to an island, enslaving the natives who-as his personal military force-would kill the remaining crew and worship Comstock as their maniacal king. On the whaling ship Globe, Comstock achieved the first two ends; however, his ultimate plans were vanquished. Heffernan's work is based almost entirely on primary sources. Comstock's early life is described through the work of brother William Comstock (referring to the mutineer as both the "terrible whaleman" and "our hero"). The mutiny is seen, in large part, through the eyes of Samuel's other brother George, a fellow member of the Globe crew. The description of the island invaded by the Globe (on the Mili Atoll) is found in The Narratives of surviving crew members William Lay and Cyrus Hussey. The rescue of the crew members is based primarily on the memoirs of Captain Hiram Paulding.
I found the story to be a little disappointing. The main character is no longer a factor before the halfway point of the book. Samuel Comstock is such a fascinating character: psychopathic on one level but then revealing strong religious sensibilities when he conducted burial services for those he killed and spared the life of Gilbert Smith, who he suspected of being a threat to his ends, allegedly because he respected Smith's moral standing. Then, alas, Comstock is gone and the story shifts to Lay and Hussey trying to survive on the islands.
The author is limited to what sources are available. A lot of questions are not answered; most likely through no fault of the author. Why did the natives, who regarded the white intruders as "visitors from outerspace" spare the lives of Lay and Hussey? What was the reaction of Samuel's parents to news of the mutiny and their son's role in it? Did not brothers George and William note their reaction in their writings?
For the most part, the book is fast-moving (the body of the text is only 215 pages) and written in an engaging and sometimes exciting style. The final 40 pages or so after Paulding and the rescue ship Dolphin accomplished its mission is a bit tedious as the new arrivals struggled to tolerate the natives. The Afterward seemed a bit unfocused with a preoccupation with Captain Percival's attempts to have the prostitution ban lifted on the ship as they stayed in the missionary Hiram Bingham-dominated Hawaiian islands. Heffernan also breezes through a question on whether Hussey or Lay fathered children while on the islands (the author thinks not). Heffernan continues with the fates of those involved but more post-island information, if available, would be welcomed. What was the public reaction to the mutiny? Were there any letters to the editor in the newspapers on the subject? The ending seemed flowery and hard to follow: "On one ship the curtain comes down on deeds of blood and a mind sailing by itself-things of wonder" (p. 215). There are many appendices including George Comstock's account of the mutiny that is published in full for the first time. A list of Globe crew members, including their heights, is very interesting. These appendices alone make the book worthwhile to anyone interested in the subject. The book also includes a section of photos (mainly sketches and title pages of primary sources). Photos of the islands as they exist today (is Surgeon Benjamin Wells' grave plaque still there?) would be welcomed. Mutiny on the Globe, while not perfect, is a compelling book that will probably encourage many readers to seek other books on Samuel Comstock.
Rating: 
Summary: Rather dissappointing
Review: The author's speculations were at times annoying.
But what I disliked the most about this book was
it incomplete summary of the folks involved.
The author wrote a good deal about the two
stranded survivors. Yet in the closing of the
book, the fate of one is ommitted. This was
aggravating.
Rating:
Summary: Not as Good as Some Other Recent Nautical Books
Review: There has been quite a glut lately of books about nautical disasters, both recent and historic. Some like "The Perfect Storm" and "In the Heart of the Sea" have been excellent. Others have been less so. Unfortunately, "Mutiny on the Globe," while not awful, belongs in the latter category. It faces some tough competition, being one of two books released this year on the savage mutiny led bed Nantucket whaleman Samuel Comstock in 1822. It is also in competition with "Batavia's Graveyard," another book released a couple of months ago about a historical mutiny which is far superior to this one. Part of the problem is that only a brief portion of "Mutiny on the Globe" is devoted to the voyage and the mutiny itself. Author Thomas Heffernan spends a long time detailing the early life of Smauel Comstock, which is not all that interesting and pales by comparison to "Batavia's Graveyard"'s gruesome accounts of life at sea during the so-called golden age of sail. The book is also strangely lacking in details about Nantucket whaling, which were so memorable in "In the Heart of the Sea" (the events of which took place around the same time). The last third of the narrative is devoted to the stories of the survivors of the mutiny, though the accounts of the two sailors who were forced to live in captivity among Marshall Island natives for two years before being rescued are also not worth the amount of narrative space they are given. Heffernan is a decent storyteller and tries his best to liven up his tale. The main problem seems to be that the material he had to work with seems more suited to a long magazine article than a full length book.
| 
