Introduction
PART ONE: ARRIVAL AND ASCENT, 1614–1774
1. John Smith Goes Whaling
2. “The King of Waters, The Sea-Shouldering Whale”
3. All Along the Coast
4. Nantucket, the “Faraway Land”
5. The Whale’s Whale
6. Into “Ye Deep”
7. Candle Wars
8. Glory Days
PART TWO: TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH, 1775–1860
9. On the Eve of Revolution
10. Ruin
11. Up from the Ashes
12. Knockdown
13. The Golden Age
14. “An Enormous, Filthy Humbug”
15. Stories, Songs, Sex, and Scrimshaw
16. Mutinies, Murders, Mayhem, and Malevolent Whales
PART THREE: DISASTER AND DECAY, 1861–1924
17. Stones in the Harbor and Fire on the Water
18. From the Earth
19. Ice Crush
20. Fading Away
Epilogue: Fin Out
Notes
Select Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Acknowledgments
