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Old Thomas Nickerson: The tragedy of the Essex is the story of men. And a Demon.
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Old Thomas Nickerson: [from trailer] We were headed for the edge of sanity... like we were aberrations, phantoms. Trust gave way to doubt. Hope to superstition.
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Owen Coffin: [points his pistol at Owen] Say it! Say it! Say you're scared!
Owen Chase: I will not.
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Peggy Chase: [when Owen returns alive] Oh my God... Oh my God...
Owen Chase: I promised you, didn't I?
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Matthew Joy: Gone fishin', aren't we?
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Herman Melville: Something else you've given me tonight.
Old Thomas Nickerson: And what's that?
Herman Melville: The courage to go where one does not want to go.
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[first lines]
Herman Melville: [in his letter] How does one come to know the unknowable? What faculties must a man possess? Since it was discovered that whale oil could light our cities in ways never achieved before, it created global demand. It has pushed man to venture further and further into the deep blue unknown. We know not its depths, nor the host of creatures that live there. Monsters. Are they real?
[a huge whale passes]
Herman Melville: Or do the stories exist only to make us respect the sea's dark secrets?
Title Card: NANTUCKET ISLAND Massachusetts February 1850
Herman Melville: The question both vexes and excites me, and is the reason I've written you a second time to request a meeting. A conversation with you, sir, I believe will serve me well for the novel I intend to write, currently entitled: Moby Dick. I hope you will reconsider my offer. The unknown. That is where my imagination yearns to venture. And so the question plagues me still: How does a man come to know the unknowable? Sincerely, Herman Melville.
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Paul Mason: Blood, Mr. Chase. You can have all the voyages under your belt you want, but blood will always win out.
Owen Coffin: Yes, well, blood is not gonna fill a ship with oil, Mr. Mason.
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Pollard Senior: To be a captain, you cannot be a friend. You are their superior. Never forget that. Never let *them* forget it.
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George Pollard: [upon meeting] "Chase." That's an off-island name, isn't it?
Owen Chase: Yes, it is. And very shortly we will be off-island for some time, and I'll be very much at home.
[calmly smiles]
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Thomas Nickerson: My mother's buried up in Smith's hill. There's a stone for my father, too. He was lost at sea before I was born.
Owen Chase: Here, give me that.
[grabs a coil of rope]
Owen Chase: Well, this is your family now, boy. For better or for worse. worse, mostly.
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Owen Chase: To return to port without a single barrel of oil would be a mistake, sir. And not behoove a man whose name is Pollard. Or Chase, for that matter. And the best thing for both of us would be to work all hours Gods sends us, fill this ship with oil and be home inside a year and rid of one another as quickly as possible. Trust me, I am every bit as desirous of that as you.
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Owen Chase: [being pulled by a whale] You're on your first Nantucket sleigh ride, boy!
Owen Coffin: Oh my God! Whoo!
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Old Thomas Nickerson: Greed took hold of our captain and first mate. So we headed out. A thousand leagues along the equator. Where knowledge ended, speculation began. That's where the whales had gone to hide. As far from man as they could possibly go. But we hunted them down. Centuries before, sailors feared sailing off the edge of the Earth. But we where headed for the edge of sanity. Trust gave way to doubt. Hope to blind superstition.
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Old Thomas Nickerson: Take the money and leave! The devil's bargain.
Herman Melville: No, sir. The devil loves unspoken secrets. Especially those that fester in a man's soul.
Old Thomas Nickerson: What's yours?
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Owen Chase: It's a privilege to know the moment of one's death in advance - be able to prepare for it. Cursed to be so far from home - without a chance to say goodbye, without a chance to make peace; without a chance to settle scores. Then let us at least settle those between us, Captain.
George Pollard: Captain of what?
Owen Chase: The Essex was lost through no fault of yours. I was as much to blame for...
George Pollard: You are not the captain! But you were born to do this job. I was just born into it.
Owen Chase: What do we do, do you think, George? And what offense did we give God to upset him so?
George Pollard: The only creature to have offended God here is the whale.
Owen Chase: Not us? In our arrogance, our greed. Look were we find ourselves.
George Pollard: We are supreme creatures made in God's own likeness. Earthly kings, whose business it is to circumnavigate the planet bestowed to us. To bend nature to our will.
Owen Chase: You really feel like an earthly king after everything that we've been through? We're nothing. We're... we're specks. And dust.
George Pollard: We sail into the sun at dawn. If we are to die, then with God's grace, let us die as men.
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Owen Chase: Benjamin, what are you doing?
Benjamin Lawrence: He's dead. Putting him overboard, sir.
Owen Chase: Look at me. Look at me, Benjamin. No right-minded sailor discards what might yet save him.
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Old Thomas Nickerson: We were weeks in the doldrums. That part of the Pacific is more desert than ocean. The sun beating down.
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[last lines]
Old Thomas Nickerson: You know, I heard a man from Pennsylvania drilled a hole in the ground recently and found oil. That can't be true.
Herman Melville: I heard it, too.
Old Thomas Nickerson: Oil from the ground! Fancy that.
In the Heart of the Sea Quotes
Extended Reading
