Whale Adventure is a 1960

1960 in literature

The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....

 children's book

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 by the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

-born American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author Willard Price

Willard Price

Willard DeMille Price was a Canadian-born American natural historian and author of children's fiction.Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and his family subsequently moved to the United States when he was four. He acquired his MA and Litt.D from Columbia University, before going on to edit...

 featuring his "Adventure

The Adventure Series (Willard Price)

The "Adventure" series is a collection of children's adventure novels by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The fourteen-book series chronicles the exploits of budding teenage zoologists Hal and Roger Hunt, as they travel around the world capturing exotic and dangerous animals for their...

" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt

Hal and Roger Hunt

Hal and Roger Hunt are fictional characters appearing in the children's Adventure novel series, by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The sons of world-renowned animal collector John Hunt, Hal and Roger have grown up alongside exotic and dangerous wildlife...

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The novel depicts Hal and Roger's journey on a whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 ship with anachronistic, nineteenth century features such as harpoon

Harpoon

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...

ing by hand, hard tack

Hard Tack

Hard Tack may refer to:*Hard Tack *Hardtack, a kind of biscuit...

, the brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

, and keel-hauling. Price borrows the setting and many key events from Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

's Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...

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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

Sperm Whale

The sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, is a marine mammal species, order Cetacea, a toothed whale having the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal's head. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter...

 against a group of shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

s 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

Whaler

A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...

 with a whale-spotting helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

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