I can't say enough good stuff about the online PBS website and especially their American Experience series of documentaries. They cover everything from the first white settlers and the impact they had on Native Americans, to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln to The Dustbowl and on and on.
My fascination with the American whaling industry started a few years ago after watching the movie "Moby Dick" with Gregory Peck in his greatest role as Captain Ahab, and continued with me reading the novel (one of the greatest American novels ever in my humble) of the same name. It's a pity Starbucks had to tarnish this great novel by stealing the name of Ahab's right hand man for their awful chain of rubbish coffee shops. Nothings sacred.
This documentary brings it all home in stunning detail. While I find whaling abhorrent to say the least, this was a different time. I make no case for or against the whalers of this historical period, but their endeavors shaped America for good or ill.
I couldn't embed the documentary, but follow this link and you should be right.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1485863181
My fascination with the American whaling industry started a few years ago after watching the movie "Moby Dick" with Gregory Peck in his greatest role as Captain Ahab, and continued with me reading the novel (one of the greatest American novels ever in my humble) of the same name. It's a pity Starbucks had to tarnish this great novel by stealing the name of Ahab's right hand man for their awful chain of rubbish coffee shops. Nothings sacred.
This documentary brings it all home in stunning detail. While I find whaling abhorrent to say the least, this was a different time. I make no case for or against the whalers of this historical period, but their endeavors shaped America for good or ill.
I couldn't embed the documentary, but follow this link and you should be right.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1485863181
My knowledge of the American whaling industry extends about as far as Mountain's second album (Nantucket Sleighride) but I have to say this is no place for moral equivalency and political correctitude. It really does suck. Not to kick someone when they're down but the Japanese have a lot of answering to do on this point. Thanks for the link. Be well.
ReplyDeletethanks Andrew. I knew nothing of the 19th century whaling industry, apart from what I'd read in MobyDick.
ReplyDeleteWhaling is abhorrent and inexcusable in this day and the way the Japanese and Norwegians flaunt international law in "the name of science" sickens me. there's alot goes on in the southern ocean just outside New Zealand waters.
The doco really had my head in a spin, the impact American whaling had on the world, and how it literally disappeared on a large scale over night. Amazing story...A