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And indeed it was vary interesting.

Thomas A. Sult, MD
Sent from iPhone

On May 10, 2010, at 19:05, Ellen Mallove  wrote:

> People of NavList,
>
> Tonight's two-hour episode of "American Experience" is about the
> nineteenth century American whaling industry with many contributions
> from Mystic Seaport, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and other New
> England sources. It may be of interest to you NavListers?
>
> Heres a review:
> "Filmmaker Ric Burns [his brother is the more famous Ken Burns]
> presents an absorbing look at such men and the rise and fall of
> American whaling in "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World,"
> which airs tonight on WGBH. He wrote, directed, and coproduced the
> program, which rises on tremendous research, much of it about
> America's whaling capitals, the Quaker communities of Nantucket and
> New Bedford.
>
> Burns mixes rich reporting on the industry with a sense of its
> darkness, myths, and danger. American whalers were the best in the
> world. They perfected the art of finding and killing whales and
> rendering whale oil in the 18th and 19th centuries.
>
> In the golden age, which ran roughly from 1820 to the early 1850s,
> our whale ships were ubiquitous, harvesting huge amounts of whale
> oil in the offshore grounds of the south Pacific, thousands of miles
> west of South America. With little to guide them, they became
> explorers and mappers as well."
>
> That's from the Boston Globe. Read the rest here:
> http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2010/05/10/the_lure_of_whaling_the_reality_and_lore/
>
> Another review:
> "In the right hands - as in historian Nathaniel Philbrick's award-
> winning 2001 book "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the
> Whaleship Essex" - this should be a pulse-pounding tale. (Philbrick
> is one of the many talking heads here.) Here, it's about as tense as
> a dog-paddle in a kiddie pool. The re-creations reflect either a
> lack of budget or imagination.
> [...]
> American whaling was ultimately sunk by the country's expansion west
> and the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in the 1850s.
> Burns' story has its moments, but it relies too often on static
> shots and exposition from a fleet of experts. This is one journey
> that would have benefited from a firmer hand at the helm."
>
> And that's from the Boston Herald. Read the rest
> here:
> 
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/reviews/view/20100510thar_she_blows_pbs_whale_tale_is_lost_at_sea/
>
> Check your local
> listings.
>
> EM.
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