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?

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.

Where's the rest of it, boy?

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

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?

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.

And what's your name? Never mind that.

We need more grub. I ain't full.

'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.

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.

Yeah, he went there.

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

It already is.

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.

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.

Sea water.

Keeps the barrels swollen and tight.

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.

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.