Examine the American whaling industry from its 17th-century origins in drift and shore whaling off the coast of New England and Cape Cod, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling, the tragedy of the Essex, and the career of Moby Dick's Herman Melville, and on to its demise in the decades following the American Civil War.
Score
Brian Keane's haunting maritime elegy never lets you surface.
Direction
Ric Burns turns archival whaling logs into epic poetry.
Cinematography
Restored 19th-century paintings and footage feel impossibly vast.
Director
Ric Burns
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
US
