The Whale

'Man versus whale.

'It's a primeval struggle.'

'We may have been a tiny speck in the ocean's vastness,

'but we were ruthless in battling this giant of nature.'

'Yes, it was a one-sided contest.

'Nature didn't stand a chance.'

'Victory was always ours,

'and we were shameless.

'We turned the sea red with slaughter.

'Whale oil flowed like gold

'to Nantucket's harbour.

'And we, God-fearing men,

'were killing in his name,

'slaughtering with impunity.'

'Until...

'Until, just once,

something remarkable happened.'

This film contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

'Leviathan.

'The devils of the deep.'

That's what my grandfather used to call them.

Nothing pleased him more than to scare me witless

with his stories of the sea.

He said if I ever went to sea, I'd have my own tales of storms

and cannibals and...monsters to tell.

The way he told it, there wasn't a decker on board

wouldn't lay down his life for his shipmates.

"Brotherhood of the whaler," he called it.

Where he saw light and whale oil, and a noble profession,

others saw greed,

and the darkness that bred it.

Me?

I only saw one thing...

adventure.

'The Essex. All 90 feet and 238 tonnes of her.'

'Like every young Nantucketer,

'my ambition was to hunt the mighty whale.

'But the only way for me to get aboard

'was to start at the bottom, cabin boy.'

This is my maiden voyage, gentlemen. Hop to it.

Aye, aye, Captain.

'My grandfather once said, "You choose the man you become."

'Today was that day.'

You survive by following orders, at all times.

-No matter who gives them. Is that clear?

-Yes.

-Yes what?

-Yes, sir.

-Nice suit.

My grandfather left room for me to grow into it.

Every whale ship has three whalers. Every whaler has its own crew.

-A steerer, a harpooner...

-Oi, you blind, boy?

-..rowers.

-Watch where you goin'!

-Steerer, harpooner, rowers.

We get a share of every whale caught.

While we hunt, you only have one job -

row, as hard as you can.

I have duties of my own to be getting on with.

My uncle's too soft.

Captain Pollard is your uncle?

It's young Nickerson, isn't it?

Tom, sir.

So, why do you want to hunt whales?

We light the lamps of the world, sir.

The oil we barrel is used in Paris and London.

-Did you know that, sir?

-I've heard some rumours, yes.

Some places I can't even pronounce.

So, you fancy yourself a traveller?

-KNOCK AT DOOR

-Come.

They've shorted the barrels. The penny-pinching bastards.

200 barrels of meat will not last a three-year voyage.

We're late leaving already. What we have is sufficient.

-We can be sure the owners' bellies won't be going empty.

-I will not be tested on this.

We sail as planned.

Whale hunting can be exciting, Tom. That much is true.

You travel the world, or parts of it.

But it's also a tough life for a man, never mind a boy.

On land, you have time to grow up.

At sea, that's a luxury you cannot afford.

You sleep there. Negroes there. Galleys here.

Below deck, you answer to the cook.

Rules are simple. Captain eats first,

-then the mates, then the crew.

-BELL RINGS

That's my watch.

Pass me that.

I suppose he give you all that guff about calling him 'sir'?

-Yes, sir.

-And don't you hold with the crew calling us barrel scrapers.

The real power on this boat is right here. We feed 'em.

We're the sawbones when they're sick.

And ones we don't like, we make sick.

What you waiting for?

Food here don't cut itself, boy.

CHATTER

Where's the rest of it, boy?

Leave him alone, Hendricks. That's your lot.

LAUGHTER

All right, shut your traps.

Hold up, hold up.

I don't care who you are.

I don't care who you were.

If you're running from the law, if you're running from family,

it don't matter horse piss to me.

You're here. And you're mine now.

Who's worked on other decks?

-MEN:

-Yeah.

The only thing you need to know about my deck

is do what I tell you.

Now, the Captain, he may run the ship, but I run you.

And, for the next three years, I own you.

We hunt whale, and the more we catch, the bigger your share.

So fill the barrels with oil, follow your orders,

and know your place.

You'll see no trouble from me.

MAN SNIGGERS

-And what's your name?

-Never mind that.

We need more grub. I ain't full.

COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING

'It seemed my grandfather neglected to mention

'that the Leviathan might not be the only monster of the sea.'

Get me another man for my whaler.

One who can keep his mouth shut.

Could've killed him.

-Let's clean him up.

-Good job, if you ask me.

Done nothing but bitch and complain since you got here.

He only arrived this morning.

Felt like longer.

'George Pollard Junior, Captain of the Essex,

'was from a Quaker whaling family.

'His father had been a Nantucket whale ship captain before him.

'Owen Chase had fought his way up from lowly decker to First Mate.

'These two men were coin opposites.'

Mr Chase.

Raise a studding on the mainsail yard. We have a fair wind.

-Let's not waste it.

-Captain...

fast sails are hard to put up, even harder to take down.

-The men are still green.

-I gave you an order, Mr Chase.

I expect you to carry it out.

-Peterson.

-Yeah?

-Studdings on the main.

-You off your onion?

Studdings on the main it is.

Nickerson. Set to stud yard.

Mr Chase.

The boy's not ready for that climb.

He's my decker.

He's ready if I say so.

Look alive now, me hearties. Look alive there.

HE GRUNTS

ROPES CREAK

A week's grog he'll end up painting the deck red.

I ain't scrubbing it clean if he falls.

Peterson, I'll see that bet.

Your mama drop you on your head when you was born, boy?

-He'll make it.

-A pig's got four legs,

don't mean you back it in a horse race.

HE PANTS

HE GASPS

Yeah, he went there.

Looks like your whaler's going to be short of men, Mr Chase.

It already is.

HE GASPS

Hey! Sunset in six hours. Get a move on.

Studdings underneath the yard. Aye, Mr Chase!

Greenhorn's got balls. I'll give him that.

Come on, boy.

HE PANTS

I'll collect my grog for later, Peterson.

You can have the skin off my turds, too.

You owe me.

'I didn't need to climb to the very top...

'but I wanted to.'

'What a view.

'I'd never been further than a mile from the farm before.

'I'd never glanced further than the corner of the road out of Nantucket.

'But up there, up there, felt like you'd sprouted angel wings,

'and any corner of the earth was your choosing.'

Now, I don't hold with linctus.

There's only one cure I know for rope burn as bad as that.

Burnt you up good, didn't they?

You ready?

Not really, no. HE WINCES

Sea water.

Keeps the barrels swollen and tight.

HE GASPS

We'll fashion you into a man yet.

Your own mama won't recognise you by the time you get home.

My mother's dead.

Died in childbirth along with my sister.

My father followed soon after.

You left watch without permission.

He's injured. I took him below.

-Was I addressing you, Mr Bond?

-I'm doing my job.

-You'd do well to remember your place.

-You're a hind-tit sucking runt.

What about you, Mr Bond?

Do you have family?

Captain Pollard'll be expecting his evening tray later.

Fetch it to him after we're done here.

They're my deckers.

It's no business of yours how I run them.

-What authority you have comes from me.

-I'm not disputing that.

I'm disputing your handling of the matter.

You undermined me in front of the crew

-when I ordered that coof up the rigging.

-Mr Chase, that is a term I do not care for.

-The boy shows promise.

-He's a coof.

He wasn't born on Nantucket.

You do your job, leave me to do mine.

Like Captain Russell and his First, if you remember.

I remember. But this is my ship now.

And I'm not Captain Russell.

No, sir.

You are not.

-KNOCK AT DOOR

-Come in.

-Anything else?

-I've said my piece.

-Good.

It seems whales close to land are harder to find than ever.

If we have any hope of success, we'll have to travel further out.

I've plotted a course around the Horn.

See it to the wheel. We sail for the Pacific.

One more thing, Mr Chase.

You may use beer garden language like that in from the men,

but never in front of your captain.

Do you understand?

Thank you, Tom.

Good night, sir.

'Coof.'

Nantucket children used to taunt me with that term in school.

They took great delight in reminding me I was an outsider.

Captain Pollard was the first person who had ever defended me,

and I shall never forget that kindness.

I was beginning to feel my sea legs,

but there were those who muttered Captain Pollard hadn't found his.

THUNDER RUMBLES

There's a storm brewing ahead. We should take the studdings down.

The Essex has endured a hundred storms, Mr Chase.

We're running at eight knots.

Travelling fast is the point of fast sails.

We go into that storm full-masted, we're going to lose them.

There are whales the other side of that storm, Mr Chase,

and we still have a ship full of empty barrels.

If I was over-zealous in raising you from second to first mate,

please say so.

THUNDER CRASHES

WIND HOWLS

All hands on deck!

Face the topsail down!

-Hold!

-Steady!

All hands on deck!

Come on. All hands on deck!

Get up, coof. Get up!

Hold that bearing, Mr Hendricks.

THEY SHOUT, DROWNED OUT BY WIND

The whaler's broken free!

Get a line to it.

Mr Joy, what do I do?

Pray to whoever you believe in.

Mr Joy, come here!

Hold this! Knot it. Knot it!

HE YELLS

Find Chase.

Is that all you got? Huh?

Captain, we have too much sail.

We have to change course.

And turn back? It's weakening.

Hold course. We're through the worst.

We risk the ship, captain.

Did you hear what I said, Mr Chase? We go on.

-Nickerson.

-Yes, sir.

Help Owen secure the floaters.

Hold the wheel!

I don't need help, coof.

-Mr Chase said...

-Leave it!

ROPE SNAPS TAUT

-Owen! Man overboard!

-Man overboard!

HE SCREAMS

Hold tight, Owen!

Help! Help!

Keep hold!

I won't let you go!

I won't! I've got you. I've got you!

Come on, nearly there!

I'm going to have to cut them down, Captain. I have to.

Put that axe away, Mr Chase.

-I am not losing the sails on my maiden voyage.

-We've no choice!

I said put that down. I will not tell you again, Mr Chase.

Lose them, or lose the ship.

It's easing. It's easing. All right.

LAUGHTER

It's easing! Blown itself out.

'Somehow we had survived.

'Nature had tried to scuttle us, but we did not sink.'

There's a line in Proverbs, 16:18.

"Pride comes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall."

"..the path of eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he sent his son..."

Thank you.

You'd have done the same for me.

-Help me with that tackle there, boy.

-Yes, sir.

It's an old wound. Opens up sometimes.

It's nothing.

Lost my balance. Stumbled.

Don't look like it wants to infect.

From Mr Bond. To ease the pain.

You're no good to me with that, Peterson.

You chose me on account I'm the best rower on this ship.

Reckon I still am, even with this.

Sew it up.

Hold that against it.

My bark's worse than my bite, boy.

HE BARKS

Here. Pull it tight. Like this.

You want me to sew him up?

Just like the sailcloth.

I've seen the sailcloth you darn.

Now you hold it tight.

Tighter.

Captain. We lost a fully loaded whaler. Another is badly damaged.

-We have to return to port.

-We press on.

There's only two working boats.

So repair the broken one.

Is this because I was right about the storm?

You may have been right, Mr Chase. But I am Captain.

What's the point in having a first if you aren't going to listen?

You can short the men food all you want when there's oil in the barrels

but not when we haven't had a single kill since we left the port.

Mr Chase, are you saying the men would be happier under you?

I'm telling you what the men are thinking. That's my job.

Do not mistake my patience for weakness. We press on.

Repair the broken whaler.

We'll trust to happenstance to make up for our loss.

That'll be all.

Does Mr Chase speak the truth? The men doubt my capability?

Not all the men are upset, sir.

Most are behind you.

Your skill saved us from the storm.

You should never confuse skill with luck, Tom.

Thank you.

Cabin boy's often privileged to certain conversations.

What's spoken of within these walls remains within these walls.

We thank you, Lord in Heaven, for our safe journey.

And we thank you for our captain,

whose steady hand guided us through the storm

and delivered us to calm seas and clear skies.

Amen.

Amen.

-Amen.

-Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Mr Peterson.

No, go on. You ask him.

You go first.

Spit your craw out, boy.

Is it true?

Were you caught by cannibals?

Don't ask me about them things.

It's bad luck. Cannibals.

It was a cold night. I remember that.

We was harboured. Island in the middle of nowhere.

Weren't no place for a shadow to hide, let alone an animal or a tree.

The middle of the night they came.

Silent as death.

Took me and the cabin boy.

Weren't much older than you.

I seed them eat the boy.

Sucked his eyes right out of their sockets,

like they was barnacles from a shell.

I seen one of them slice him from cakehole to asshole.

Blood pouring out of him like warm piss.

The boy screaming for his kin and God's mercy.

He had this look on his face...

..like none of it was happening.

Feeding on him,

slopping bits out of him.

And I...

What you think I did?

I pretended I was one of them.

I don't believe you.

I did what I had to do.

And you does what you does when you want to live.

and you do that lad a mis-service by calling me a liar.

Sorry, Mr Peterson.

I didn't mean to call you a liar.

You juggins.

Long as there's a cannibal in there somewhere,

you jossers'll believe any old spit!

One month turned to two, and two turned to three,

and still no sign of whales.

The captain wrongly felt responsible for this lack.

All the more for being a new captain.

Now, Mr Joy, either the boat is getting bigger

or the food is getting smaller.

-Can't take any more of this slop.

-That's it?

Captain's orders.

First the storm. Now shorted food - again.

The storm was bad luck.

Balls. Weren't nothing to do with fortune. Captain was at fault.

The fact of the matter is,

Pollard don't even know he took us into this pisspot.

If we was hunting whales now, you wouldn't be bellyaching.

Whales? We ain't seen one in months.

I suppose the fact that the sea is fished dry

-is Pollard's fault as well, right?

-Now why you always backing Pollard?

-What's it to you?

-Nothing.

It's something to you, though, ain't it?

HE SETS DOWN HIS BOWL

Where's your ball gowns?

You're worse than women cavilling over a cheap bonnet.

Maybe Pollard should have listened to Mr Chase,

maybe he shouldn't have.

Don't matter to us deckers, that's the plain and simple.

Pollard's captain, and what he says goes,

and where Pollard goes, we follows.

I'd feel a whole lot safer if Mr Chase were Captain.

You keep thoughts like that to yourself.

Unless you want to be swinging from the mizzen

with the birds feasting your eyeballs.

Now quit wagging your pow.

'I should have spoken up.

'I should have defended the captain.'

-Clinking on the keel could use a spare nail or two.

-Yes, sir.

She's looking good.

She'll be fine. On short voyages.

Are we looking at the same thing, Mr Chase?

She's spavined.

You're talking like you've breathed life back into her.

What has you so sour, huh?

No whales.

Rotten food, and little of it.

And this.

I'll take her. She'll be lucky for me.

Mr Chase.

We're going to see the captain.

It's time somebody told him how it was.

You put that down.

This don't concern you.

You got a foul opinion of the captain, you stash it to yourself.

This is my deck. You put that down.

I won't be shorted food no longer.

I ain't going to ask again, Hendricks.

Then you'd better step back.

I am going to break every bone in your body.

And I will do so without loss of sleep.

I'll pass your concerns to the captain.

The rest of you - get back to work!

You heard the man, get back to work.

Or I will flog the skin off your backs with my own hands.

This is my ship.

You'll eat what you're given and you'll be thankful for it.

If I have to halve the rations again

then that's the way it'll be.

And do not doubt for one second

that I will string the mizzen with corpses if you disagree.

Is that clear?

Sir?

Now get back to work.

Thar she blows!

-Thar she blows!

-Thar she blows!

'There she blows. Three little words

'and the atmosphere of the Essex was transformed.

'It was finally time to do what we'd come thousands of miles to do.'

Keep rowing.

-How far?

-We're gaining.

I said how far?

Speak to me! Lawrence! How far?

-Hundred yards.

-Keep pulling.

Row! Nickerson, put some bones in!

Come on.

Speak to me, Lawrence.

-Getting closer.

-Pull!

-Row!

-Put your backs in.

-Come on!

Final push!

Come on!

Did it strike?

Did it strike?

Brace!

CREAKING

THEY LAUGH

'They say you never forget your first Nantucket sleigh ride.

'I never felt more alive than when skimming the waves in that whaler.

'But the speed, the danger,

'it all had a cost.'

ECHOING LAUGHTER

The last whale we caught damn near took us under, he did.

Horseshit. There ain't a whale on God's earth

that can dive with 150 of those floater-buoys stuck in its hump.

I got the scars to prove it.

You got scars for everything, Peterson. Except counting.

Now Mr Joy, I mayn't be a mathematical...

There ain't no such word as mathematical, Mr Peterson.

You're just a boot-licker in my book.

-You mind what you're going to scrimshaw?

-No.

Start a new piece every voyage.

Just because the Essex is a lucky ship

don't mean I'm breaking the habit of a lifetime.

That whale you ripped that bit of jawbone from weren't so lucky.

WATER SPOUTS

There, there, there she blows!

Whale on the lee bow.

Dipped in whale brain. Ain't nothing sweeter in life.

Food of the damn gods.

Good news, gentlemen.

We have a whole school a league off to port.

We catch half of that, we'll be home by Christmas.

Let's have at them.

My whaler took a knock. I should see to her first.

You go on ahead.

The ship is yours.

Thank you, sir.

That one's been following us for half a day now.

Getting closer.

Braver.

Maybe he wants to join the one we just barrelled.

Make for him, Lawrence.

-Ready.

-Ready.

Throw it!

Now, now!

WOOD CREAKS AND SPLINTERS

Where'd it go? Where is it?

Where's the whale?

Did you get her?

Tore the keel off like a twig. The ship's going down.

Take what you can! Abandon ship!

Aboard the whalers! Abandon ship!

CUPBOARD RATTLES

Abandon ship!

Nickerson!

Over here! Over here!

Get in the whaler.

The Essex was gone.

The whale struck, and moments later

there was nothing but ocean and empty sky.

Even now, it seems impossible.

-Over here!

-Bond! Over here!

God's sake, get in the whaler!

Bond!

We got you. We got you.

Come on.

You off your onion, Mr Bond?

BOND PANTS

You a lucky man.

I hope whatever you risked your life for was worth it.

At least we can find our way home.

2,000 miles from land, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

We were as far away from civilisation as it was possible to be.

Captain Pollard took the sinking worst of all.

Not at the helm when his ship goes down.

What shame he must have felt.

I'd never seen a man's spirit fade so fast.

Hold that rope over here.

-Got it.

-Come on, boys. Hold it steady.

-Tighter.

-Bring her in.

-That's it, that's it.

Pass that rope.

What happened, Mr Chase?

We've been stove by a whale.

It's true, sir.

A whale does not attack a ship.

This one could. We all saw it.

Are you saying it were calculated?

It can't calculate.

It's one of the almighty creatures. Who knows its mind apart from him?

'He could not believe that it happened.'

I was there myself and I still don't believe it.

With the captain's voice gone, one person spoke loud and firm.

Look, this is a waste of time.

We need food and we need water.

As much as we can fit in the whalers.

I'm not sitting here relying on happenstance to be rescued.

We get through the night and come daybreak we make for land.

We catch a variable to Peru.

No. We make for the Society Isles to the west.

-Islands with cannibals.

-I've read no reports saying that is so.

I do not hold with your reports.

Well, what do you hold with, Mr Chase? Going back to the Americas?

That is a 2,000-mile journey against tide and wind.

We go south. We catch a variable to Peru.

That's another 1,000 miles.

The Society Isles are closer and our best option.

We can provision there. I am right about this, Mr Chase.

Like you were right about the storm?

Like you were right about the spavined whaler?

I'm not the cause of this.

You want to make for the Society Islands? Go ahead.

Nobody's fighting to stop you.

You want to stay here? That's fine by me.

You can be captain of water for as long as you want.

We stand a better chance together.

I agree. I'm making for Peru.

-You're making a mistake.

-It's done.

You know what to do. Salvage what you can.

Food, water, canvas, anything at all. Clear?

-Aye, sir.

-Yes, Mr Chase.

Fish out anything you can.

If it ain't spoiled, bring it in the boat.

Anything we can get our hands on.

'If you ask me, that whale knew what he was doing.'

He followed us, waited,

and he chose that spot way out there for a reason.

Revenge.

Get up.

HE KICKS THE BOAT

Get up! We're whalers. We do not give up.

We lost our ship, not our purpose.

We need a sail.

Whalers don't have sails.

They do now. Check the lines.

Start in the stern, work forward.

Use a nail if you have to. This is our ship now.

She'll look after us if we look after her.

Where are we, sir?

Pursuing a wrong course.

HE SPITS

What's to eat?

I do believe it's fish tonight.

That's funny-looking fish. Looks like hard tack.

Sea soaked at that.

I don't much care for your cooking, Mr Bond.

Need more salt?

THEY LAUGH

Mr Joy, I did not think you were capable of laughing.

Until now I had nothing I cared to laugh about.

-It's getting worse. We're going to sink!

-Lift up the boards.

We're not going to sink.

Canvas, quick, pass me the canvas.

-Mr Chase! Steady.

-Bail it out!

Long days turned to longer nights.

Days became weeks.

We set off south, as Mr Chase suggested,

but the winds pushed us further from land.

Our whole world was three fragile whalers.

My wife is with child.

At least, she was before I left.

Expect I'm a father now.

Provided they lived.

Had you a hankering for a son or a daughter?

Don't matter to me.

As long as theirs is a better life than mine.

You know, I never questioned going to sea.

And death is part of life, right?

Ours even more so.

But for the first time in my life...

..I had a mind to cry off this voyage.

MR JOY COUGHS

It's damn cold, ain't it?

Mr Joy.

They're gone.

They were there one minute, gone the next.

I wasn't kipping, I swear!

The whale took them. He must have.

It's not the whale. We just separated is all.

We'd be dead he if wanted us dead.

Here.

There! There!

Well done, Tom.

-DISTANT VOICES:

-Land ho!

Land ho!

Land. It's land!

Captain, wake yourself!

EXCITED SHOUTING

Oh. Oh, God.

-Ha-ha! We're saved!

-We're saved!

'If there was a man who didn't believe

'in the Almighty before that day,

'there wasn't one by the time our feet touched land.'

Come on! Move her up! Move her up!

Heave!

Heave!

Heave!

'All we had to do was wait for a passing ship to find us.

'We were saved.'

Let's split up. Search the island.

We should wait here. See if it's safe.

Where are we, anyways?

Perhaps Mr Chase can enlighten us.

SQUAWKING AND SHRIEKING

What was that?!

It's just an animal.

What if there are cannibals here?

This looks like that island from Mr Peterson's story.

Every island is like another. It don't matter where we are.

That can wait.

We need food, water and shelter.

Come on!

Search the island!

It's poisonous, like most of the stuff on this island.

Keep looking.

HE GRUNTS AND GASPS

SLURPING

Mr Chase said to keep hunting, uncle.

We have a few hours of light yet.

Who is Captain, Seahand Coffin?

You are, uncle.

The sooner you and the rest of the crew remember

the natural order of things, the better.

'The world was turned upside down.

'The natural order had gone.'

MUTTERED CONVERSATION: Share what you've got.

Pass it over here.

'The Captain's spirit had sunk with the Essex.

'But instead of rallying around him, most of the crew shunned him,

'like we were afraid of catching it ourselves.'

PISTOL CLICKING

Don't burn it. Don't let it drop.

Oh, God, it smells like heaven.

Ahhh, yeah! Got to have some of that!

This job sure is a steaming puddle of horse piss at times.

This is the third ship I've been on that's sunk one way or other.

Now he tells us.

STIFLED LAUGHTER

It's all well and good for Peterson.

If he fell off a mast he'd land in a hammock.

SQUAWKING

GUN COCKING, GUNSHOT

WINGS FLUTTERING

You're shooting at ghosts.

Save your shot.

The Captain is not himself.

I've seen bigger men than Pollard broken, and he was strong once.

Faced down a mob single-handed, he did.

Long as I stay at sea, I have my own life, thanks to him.

I killed a man.

It was self defence, but that held no sway.

He was white.

Was to be peeled and lynched until Pollard stepped in.

When they couldn't hang me...

..they lynched my family.

Uncle...

..and two brothers.

PISTOL CLICKING

'There is a darkness blacker than the blackest night,

'blacker than greed, even.'

When it bites it eats you alive.

Bad as things were between the captain and Mr Chase,

at least we were all together. Now...

'things tore asunder.'

'Desperation fuels acts far worse than greed can.'

'Every scrap of food, every morsel, spawned jealousy, discontent.'

Who stole my fish?

'Hatred.'

Who took it? Which one of y'all?

That's mine.

-I was saving that, Lawrence.

-I caught it with my own hands.

You're a damn liar.

I've had about enough of your bellyaching.

It was my fish!

STRUGGLING AND GRUNTING

Captain?

STRUGGLING CONTINUES

Arrgh!

Break it up! I said break it up!

Fightin' over a scrap of fish.

-Save your energy!

-For what?!

There are parts of this island we haven't explored yet.

Now come on!

A shoe.

Let's see what else we can find.

COUGHING AND WHEEZING

We don't have to rush.

Are you being funny?

No, I...

I just mean we can wait here.

Just until I catch my breath.

FLINT SPARKING

We must be careful.

There might be cannibals.

They were shipwrecked.

Thought they'd found a paradise.

Island yielded food for ten days, then nothing.

They sucked it dry.

I count eight.

You don't mention this to anyone. You hear me?

The men hear about this,

they'll more than likely slit each other's throats for what's left.

Yes, sir.

There's hardly rainwater left for one,

never mind a dozen.

We ate the last of the birds days ago.

And every day we waste here...

..is a day we aren't moving toward home.

Good luck with getting the men back on to the whalers again.

It's going to take some fancy talking to achieve that.

HE COUGHS AND WHEEZES

You know, I...

I never understood the time you paid to scrimshaw.

I tells people it's to bring luck.

Truth be known, it's an ugly world, Mr Chase, plain and simple.

You finds your beauty where you can.

Just see me a Christian funeral, that's all I ask.

The way some of the men been looking at me,

reckon they see a Christmas ham before their eyes.

HE CHUCKLES

Nah.

You'd give 'em gut burn.

Aye, I would.

You go on ahead now, boy.

'Mr Joy always had a spot on his on his floor for me.

'And a bowl of gruel.

'Never turned me away,'

or asked for a penny in return.

Of course, his gruel tasted like shit.

And he watered down whatever grog he saw fit to share.

He was a blessing to me, though.

Saved me from myself many a time.

Mr Joy.

The most inappropriately named fella I ever met.

-Mr Joy. ALL:

-Mr Joy.

(Mr Joy.)

-MUTTERED CONVERSATION:

-That won't last.

We're running out of rope, Sir.

To hell with Mr Chase get me some twine, make this sturdy.

What is it?

What is it, boy?!

Uncle.

-Uncle!

-We've got company.

Sir?

We cannot stay.

We have to leave.

You have undermined my command for the last time.

I've done my job, and no more.

Liar!

You seek my position.

-Have done since I was raised from First to Captain.

-Sir?

You're not well.

You too, Tom?

The boy found skeletons in the cave.

Eight of them.

This place is dead.

And if we stay, that is no shelter you build, it is a tomb.

I will be tested on this no longer, Mr Chase.

I am Captain, like it not, Essex or not,

and if I have to fight you to see it my way, then I will do so.

I am not here to fight you.

Then you are a coward, as well as a liar.

I have never stepped aside from anything in my life.

But I will not...fight...you.

I'll not follow a madman.

What did you say?

-Holster your weapon.

-Sir...?

-Get back.

-Lower that now!

-Stand down!

-I do not take orders from you!

ENOUGH!

I was wrong.

Captain, I was wrong.

You took time to find your sea legs as Captain,

but you did so.

Another of your tricks, Mr Chase?

The only trick here was nature's.

And a cruel one at that.

We lost our ship to a whale.

-And I suppose I am to blame for that, am I?

-No more than I.

If I had killed the beast before he attacked us,

then we wouldn't even be here.

It was ill-fortune, Captain. Nothing more.

We have been here for five days,

and each day there has been less food than the day before.

We have to leave.

Think about your wives,

waiting every day on the shoreline for your safe return.

Think about your families.

Hold on to anything from home.

Those are the things that keep us alive.

GUN CLICKS

Today is Christmas Day.

And we are the crew of the Essex, and you are its Captain.

And if you think we should stay..

..then I will dispute the matter no further.

Sir.

Mr Chase is right.

This island cannot sustain us all.

But it may yet yield life for a few of us.

We shall draw lots. One man from each clinker shall stay.

Those of you that can write, leave letters for your family.

Those of you that cannot, we shall write them for you.

Should we fail to return home...

..our story will not have been written in sand.

Captain?

I wanted to thank you for taking me aboard at the start of this voyage.

You're going with Mr Chase?

I have to, sir.

But you stand a better chance in my whaler.

I have to, sir.

'Our Father, which art in Heaven.

'Hallowed be Thy Name.'

Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done

on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

forever, Amen.

Once we're at sea, we'll go in different directions.

If the whale is out there, then it won't get all of us.

Good luck.

I'll see you back home.

Heave!

STRAINING AND GROANING

'We left Henderson Island with raised hope.'

'But that hope was a line rapidly running out.'

'After another 20 days at sea...

'..even that island seemed like paradise.'

A shipwreck.

And one more white man to go

and we finally get ourselves our own boat.

We should have stayed on the island.

We would have died there.

Is it any better out here?

If I'd have known it was this easy to command a boat,

I would have done it years ago.

Do you even know where we're going?

Freedom.

I've had to cut the rations again.

Never thought I'd see the day,

but I'd give my left arm for a jug of water right now.

Eat that.

I'm not hungry.

'The men were certain the whale was below us.

'Biding its time.

'Waiting to see if we had learned our lesson.'

I don't want to die.

Not like this.

Should have cut the rations earlier.

My line is out.

If I'm to die...

..at least let it be with purpose.

I promised your mother I'd see you home.

We'll have no more talk of that.

Whatever comes...

..Mr Joy would have wanted you to have his scrimshaw for luck.

Mr Nickerson.

'Mr Nickerson. Finally.'

'I doubt Mr Chase understood the impact that had on me.'

'It erased a lifetime of being an outsider.'

60 days adrift.

The Americas were still hundreds of miles away.

Even Mr Chase couldn't make bread out of nothing.

It wasn't the sea or the elements,

or even the hunger gnawing away like an angry beast that was the problem.

It was ourselves.

ECHOING CREAKS AND SCRAPES

FLIES BUZZING

Eventually, no-one said it...

..but we could feel it.

We were turning into something else in those whalers.

Our old lives were disappearing before our eyes.

That great whale...

was finally getting its way.

We need draw no further.

-I shall take his place.

-Captain...

-It should be me.

-It was a fair lot.

Owen.

-You are my nephew.

-Please.

You must.

HE SOBS

I cannot.

It has been an honour to have served you.

We're out of food.

It's life or death.

You choose.

Boo!

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

Argh!

GUNSHOT

HE GULPS

WAVERING: Now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray thee, Lord..

I pray thee, Lord...

I pray thee, Lord...

..my soul...to keep.

SEAGULLS CAWING

RUMBLING

'The 18th February, 1821.

'That was the day our whaler was found.

'By the grace of God, Mr Chase, Benjamin Lawrence

'and myself were still alive.'

'Captain Pollard was rescued five days later.

'Only the Captain and Charles Ramsdell survived.

'They say the bottom of their whaler was full of gnawed bones.'

'The third whaler? It was never found.'

Beautiful isn't it?

A whale and most of our crew gave their lives for this.

89 days we survived under Mr Chase.

Some people called what we'd done a miracle,

others an abomination.

All of it is true.

Taken me 50 years to tell my story.

You know, I went back to the sea just a year later.

You're surprised?

I was a whaler - what else could I do?