Elderly Tom Nickerson recalls how, in 1819, he went to sea as cabin boy on the whaler 'The Essex', leaving Nantucket. Its recently promoted captain George Pollard is a kindly man, unlike first mate Owen Chase and Tom notes their mutual animosity though, inspired by tales from his grandfather, envisages life at sea as romantic. A storm and a food shortage puncture his illusions but spirits are raised when a whale is sighted and caught. However some two months later another whale attacks and sinks the ship - in what Tom believes to be an act of revenge - and the crew take to the long-boats...