Whale Adventure

First UK edition (publ. Jonathan Cape)

Whale Adventure is a 1960 children's book by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt.

The novel depicts Hal and Roger's journey on a whaling ship with anachronistic, nineteenth century features such as harpooning by hand, hard tack, the brig, and keel-hauling. Price borrows the setting and many key events from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

A scientist travels in the ship as a passenger. The captain of the ship does not agree to accommodate any more passengers, so the only way the boys may join the journey is to join the crew.

Roger defends a captured sperm whale against a group of sharks and later a pack of killer whales. This novel also explain how clever killer whales are.

The captain of the ship is a ruthless man who tortures and punishes the crew. He is beaten by Hal in a hand-to-hand fight. When an old sailor, who is pulled over the sea as a punishment, is eaten by a shark, the crew takes the control of the ship, confining the captain and his henchman in the cage.

In the end of the story, their ship was destroyed by a sperm whale and they were saved by a modern whaler with a whale-spotting helicopter.


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