Episode 46: Four men are stuck at sea, dying of thirst and dehydration after a whale attacked their ship. About to kill one of their shipmates to eat him, they are interrupted.
Tim got the idea for this story from the book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick: a book that documents the true events that inspired the classic and terrifically difficult to read novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville. A movie of the same name, a major motion picture called In the Heart of the Sea, is also based on the nonfiction book (it better be, sharing its name and all), and might be worth a watch. Though critics panned it, lay folk seem to like it. And the movie stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland, better known as Spiderman and Thor, so that's neat.
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After they decided who would die—the short lot falling to a man named John—they had to decide between the others who would be executing John. But before they could repeat the process of lot drawing with the three others, the boat rocked and water sloshed against its wooden slides that were as weathered and beat down as the men they carried. The starving men frantically—or as frantically as those who have not eaten in days could—looked around for the source of the disturbance. Was a killer whale intent on upending their meager craft? Or was it the shark returned, the shark they had beaten back days before to keep it from chewing a hole in their boat and lowering the men into the prehistoric killer’s abode? Despite their frail state, fear still found a way to nourish itself in the men’s stomachs.
There was no shark. No killer whale jostled the boat. Rather, it was a portly middle aged fellow, popped out of thin air, who now rested on one of the seats near the stern of the boat. Dressed in a checkered button down shirt, a clashing tie, slacks, and a tweed jacket, the man nodded at those in the boat before taking stock of his surroundings, squinting about at the open sea and making a few rapid notes in a notebook held in his lap. He sighed at the drying out of his pen and reached into his coat for another, tapping it to his tongue before resuming his scribbling. “Hotter than I expected,” he muttered. “Should’ve left my jacket in my office.”
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If you enjoy westerns like True Grit or The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, check out Tim’s western novel, Dust, available on Amazon in eBook form in addition to being read on the podcast.
For other resources, visit timdrugan.com.