Mutiny on the Globe: The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock

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.

Rating:
Summary: A Tale to Inspire Melville
Review: There is madness all through the classic Moby Dick, not just Ahab, and not just on the doomed whaleship _Pequod_, but on many of the vessels the _Pequod_ meets. Melville was well acquainted with the madness that might be found at sea, and he knew the literature touching thereupon. One of the quotations that are included in the mammoth collection that starts off the great novel is from the _Life of Samuel Comstock (The Terrible Whaleman)_: "If you make the least damn bit of noise," replied Samuel, "I will send you to hell." The accounts of Comstock's mutiny on the whaleship _Globe_ were well known at the time; the stories were wild and made for popular reading. Now Thomas Farel Heffernan has scrupulously studied the accounts to produce _Mutiny on the Globe: The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock_ (Norton). His account of the grisly mutiny and its aftereffects is a fast-moving and suspenseful account of the 1824 disaster which should satisfy sea history buffs, Melville fans, and anyone interested in a good yarn.

Samuel Comstock was born into a decent and prosperous Quaker family in 1802, but that didn't seem to have much to do with even his boyish activities. He was headstrong and disobedient, and at twelve, he was packing pistols and daggers under his pillow at night. He tried to run away to sea at age fourteen, and his father gave up, allowing Samuel to begin his seagoing career. As can be imagined, he had the usual drunkenness and brawling that are the hobbies of sailors, but he had sexual and romantic conquests, too; he seems to have been the archetypal bad boy that some ladies cannot help falling for. He learned plenty about going to sea, and he learned that he particularly did not like whaleships, but during his first whaling cruise, he formed the plan to spend the rest of his life as the white king of the natives of a Pacific island, which he would make a pirate center, capturing any vessel that came near. When he signed up on the _Globe_, Samuel put into his sea chest some unseamanlike possessions. He included pistols, daggers, a medicine chest, surgical instruments, and agricultural seeds. It is clear he was going to put his plan into action. He ingratiated himself to the captain, who thought he was an especially competent mariner. Samuel was able to convince a handful of other sailors (not including his little brother George who sailed with him) that his plan was feasible. The gory mutiny occurred, and the ship was guided to an atoll in the Marshall Islands. Samuel was never able to put his plan into affect, because his fellow mutineers realized they would have to be put out of the way to make it happen. Much of this book is spent telling what happened after his plan was thwarted, especially to the remaining two sailors left for two years with the natives until being rescued by the US Navy. The resolute and meritorious action of the rescuers and the rescued nicely contrasts to the bloody mutiny itself.

Heffernan knows his whaling history. He has been president of the Melville Society, and has written about the _Essex_, whose seemingly deliberate sinking by a whale inspired the climax of Moby Dick. Melville and his work are cited but a few times in the current volume, but Melville has to loom over any recounting of the whale fishery. Comstock possesses not a little amount of Ahab, and the themes of a mad dream and of death in his story Melville obviously turned full blast into his own work. There is some hope, though, in the current volume - not all is lost, and many of the sailors who lived managed heroically to save themselves and their fellows. It is a grim, gripping, and ultimately inspiring tale.

Rating:
Summary: A Tale to Inspire Melville
Review: There is madness all through the classic Moby Dick, not just Ahab, and not just on the doomed whaleship _Pequod_, but on many of the vessels the _Pequod_ meets. Melville was well acquainted with the madness that might be found at sea, and he knew the literature touching thereupon. One of the quotations that are included in the mammoth collection that starts off the great novel is from the _Life of Samuel Comstock (The Terrible Whaleman)_: "If you make the least damn bit of noise," replied Samuel, "I will send you to hell." The accounts of Comstock's mutiny on the whaleship _Globe_ were well known at the time; the stories were wild and made for popular reading. Now Thomas Farel Heffernan has scrupulously studied the accounts to produce _Mutiny on the Globe: The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock_ (Norton). His account of the grisly mutiny and its aftereffects is a fast-moving and suspenseful account of the 1824 disaster which should satisfy sea history buffs, Melville fans, and anyone interested in a good yarn.

Samuel Comstock was born into a decent and prosperous Quaker family in 1802, but that didn't seem to have much to do with even his boyish activities. He was headstrong and disobedient, and at twelve, he was packing pistols and daggers under his pillow at night. He tried to run away to sea at age fourteen, and his father gave up, allowing Samuel to begin his seagoing career. As can be imagined, he had the usual drunkenness and brawling that are the hobbies of sailors, but he had sexual and romantic conquests, too; he seems to have been the archetypal bad boy that some ladies cannot help falling for. He learned plenty about going to sea, and he learned that he particularly did not like whaleships, but during his first whaling cruise, he formed the plan to spend the rest of his life as the white king of the natives of a Pacific island, which he would make a pirate center, capturing any vessel that came near. When he signed up on the _Globe_, Samuel put into his sea chest some unseamanlike possessions. He included pistols, daggers, a medicine chest, surgical instruments, and agricultural seeds. It is clear he was going to put his plan into action. He ingratiated himself to the captain, who thought he was an especially competent mariner. Samuel was able to convince a handful of other sailors (not including his little brother George who sailed with him) that his plan was feasible. The gory mutiny occurred, and the ship was guided to an atoll in the Marshall Islands. Samuel was never able to put his plan into affect, because his fellow mutineers realized they would have to be put out of the way to make it happen. Much of this book is spent telling what happened after his plan was thwarted, especially to the remaining two sailors left for two years with the natives until being rescued by the US Navy. The resolute and meritorious action of the rescuers and the rescued nicely contrasts to the bloody mutiny itself.

Heffernan knows his whaling history. He has been president of the Melville Society, and has written about the _Essex_, whose seemingly deliberate sinking by a whale inspired the climax of Moby Dick. Melville and his work are cited but a few times in the current volume, but Melville has to loom over any recounting of the whale fishery. Comstock possesses not a little amount of Ahab, and the themes of a mad dream and of death in his story Melville obviously turned full blast into his own work. There is some hope, though, in the current volume - not all is lost, and many of the sailors who lived managed heroically to save themselves and their fellows. It is a grim, gripping, and ultimately inspiring tale.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly filler
Review: There is simply not enough material here to justify a book. I got to the point where Comstock died and said, "That's it?" This should have been a magazine article at best. The actual mutiny and aftermath take up 50 pages or so. The majority of the book is two types of filler (along with several pointless appendices to get the page count up). The first is an excessively long rundown of the very few facts known about Samuel Comstock's prior life padded with a ton of speculation from the author. The second (and majority of the book) is an account of the two survivors living among the natives. This has some interesting points, but not enough, and is a completely separate and largely unrelated story from the mutiny itself.

Rating:
Summary: Swiftly Flowing Narrative Equals a Good Summer Read
Review: Thomas Farel Heffernan has all the elements of a swift and exciting summer read in Mutiny on the Globe (The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock). The author pares the story down to its essentials, the bloody mutiny and its aftermath. Some historical context is lost in the rush (for that readers should consult the excellent In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, a wonderfully detailed book covering the same historical period). What may be lacking in context is replaced by breathtaking, and often bloody, action. This is the perfect summery beach history book that provides thrills without sacrificing intelligence.

Rating:
Summary: Swiftly Flowing Narrative Equals a Good Summer Read
Review: Thomas Farel Heffernan has all the elements of a swift and exciting summer read in Mutiny on the Globe (The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock). The author pares the story down to its essentials, the bloody mutiny and its aftermath. Some historical context is lost in the rush (for that readers should consult the excellent In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, a wonderfully detailed book covering the same historical period). What may be lacking in context is replaced by breathtaking, and often bloody, action. This is the perfect summery beach history book that provides thrills without sacrificing intelligence.