A harpooner in the whale ship Charles W. Morgan from 1849 to 1853, Nelson Cole Haley embarked on a hunt that took him from New Bedford, Massachusetts, around the world. Called a real-life version of Moby Dick, his memoir lends an authentic voice to those who were part of a high-risk business that included working on slippery whale carcasses surrounded by sharks and being towed at high speed by a harpooned whale, known as a Nantucket sleigh ride. In addition to his thrilling accounts of whale hunts, Haley also recounts the tales told by sailors waiting for the next whale sighting...