In the Heart of the Sea, the 3-D film directed by Ron Howard and released in December 2015, is an interpretation of Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick.
Brilliant cinematography takes viewers aboard The Essex, a whaler, sailing out of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, the hub of 19th century whaling, as it hunts the colossal whale. The patriarch of the large school of whales, launches a vicious counter-attack, as the sailors try to harpoon the whales. The mammal rams The Essex, almost overturning the vessel, whilst leaving a huge hole in the hull. The crew is forced to abandon ship in three lifeboats. The whale stalks and torments the boats, eventually destroying one in a fit of rage. Captain and crew are reduced to six men in two boats hopelessly adrift for 90 days, under the sweltering sun, no food or water, in a desert of water, the winds non-existent, in the doldrums.
“The Doldrums, an equatorial belt of calms area around the earth centered slightly north of the equator, between the two belts of tradewinds. The large amount of solar radiation that arrives at the earth in this area, causes intense heating of the land and the ocean. This heating results in the rising warm, moist air; low air pressure; cloudiness; high humidity; light, variable winds; and various forms of severe weather, such as
