Set in the golden age of whaling in the nineteenth century, this book brings to life the adventures of Benjamin Clough, best known for single-handedly rescuing the ship Sharon from mutineers in 1842. Clough's heroism earned him a whaling command, which led to a whaling career that for a quarter-century took him into the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans.
The extraordinary event that merited Clough his promotion to a captaincy occurred when he was just twenty-three years old. At sea since the age of sixteen, by 1842 Clough's impressive skills and seamanship had earned him an appointment as third mate aboard the whaling ship Sharon. While most of the crew, including Clough, were in smaller boats pursuing whales, three Pacific Island crewmembers, enraged by their captain's wanton cruelty, mutinied and subsequently murdered him and seized the ship. Raising its sails, they prepared to abandon the other men to die a terrifying death on the open sea. The crew, cowed by the mutineers'ferocity, was at a loss as to what to do when Clough stepped up and volunteered to retake the vessel. Alone, he swam in the pitch-black of night through shark-infested waters, boarded the Sharon, overcame two of the Islanders in hand-to-hand combat, and recaptured the ship. The Sharon's owners rewarded his heroism by giving him command on its next voyage, launching him on the second phase of his whaling career as a successful, much-admired whaling captain.
Drawing on whaling logs, journals, and family documents, author Paul Magid follows Clough from his first voyage in 1835 to his retirement from whaling in 1867. Clough's story is set in the context of the book's gritty portrayal of the dangerous and brutal conditions endured by whalers during this period. At the same time, Clough's time ashore on Martha's Vineyard allows the author to explore a little-known period in the island's history and the protagonist's role in transforming the Vineyard into a coveted destination for mainland vacationers.
About the Author :
Paul Magid, an attorney, military veteran, and former Peace Corps volunteer, has devoted himself to research and writing since his retirement in 1999. After earning a master's degree in writing from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, he began working on the first of a three-volume biography of Maj. Gen. George Crook, a Corps commander in the Civil War and an important military leader during the Indian Wars. His first book on Crook won the Western Writers of America Spur award for best biography of a Western figure, while the other two were finalists for the same award. Magid and his wife reside on Martha's Vineyard.
Review :
"An exciting story of mutiny and murder, well told by a meticulous researcher."—Joan Druett, author of Island of the Lost"Few people understand the difficulty in finding information on the importance of whaling and then producing it in such an interesting book. Pursuit of the Leviathan, is a unique tale that reads like a novel about Benjamin Clough’s life and his single handedly saving of the whaleship Sharon, beset by a rare mutiny."—Skip Finley, author of Whaling Captains of Color
"There have been historical studies of the whaling industry, of whaling voyages, of whalemen as a class, and of the women they left behind. There have been a handful of whaling captains' memoirs, mostly from the last, Arctic-centered years of the industry. Paul Magid gives us something we have never had before: A full-length study of a whaleman's life in the mid-nineteenth-century Golden Age of offshore whaling. And what a life it is! A young man leaves Maine for Massachusetts seeking adventure; rises through the ranks of a dangerous business; becomes the swashbuckling hero of a brutal mutiny; finds wealth, fame, and love; and retires as a respected citizen of his adopted hometown. Magid chronicles Ben Clough's extraordinary career with a historian's careful attention to time and place, and a novelist's sharp eye for detail. It is both an important contribution to American maritime history, and an engrossing tale, well told."—A. Bowdoin Van Riper, research librarian, Martha's Vineyard Museum
In 1835 when 16-year-old Benjamin Clough left the family farm in Monmouth Maine to sign on a whaleship as a foremast hand it is unlikely he imagined he would be at sea, with some brief interruptions, until 1867. For 22 of these years, he served as Captain of 5 separate vessels. Based on Clough’s journals, Paul Magid carefully recounts those years and Clough’s life after “swallowing the anchor” on Martha’s Vineyard. The dangers, drudgery, boredom, and opportunities for advancement and economic success which the farm boy from Maine experienced, including his role in retaking his ship after a mutiny, offer a personal look into the realities of life at sea on a 19th century whaleship. —Matthew Stackpole, former executive director, Martha's Vineyard Museum
