In March 1816 the whale ship Esk sailed from Whitby on the east coast of England on a voyage to hunt whales in the Arctic. Commanded by one of the most successful whaling captains of the time, William Scoresby Jr., it should have been a successful and lucrative summer whaling season. But bad weather and floating ice put an end to any hopes of a profit. This short book tells the story of a famous commander and a remarkable rescue.

Christopher Routledge is a writer, academic and photographer who has written mostly on literature and history, but also on beer and philosophy. He has a longstanding interest in nineteenth-century whaling and in 2013 he was one of the organisers of the first ever Moby-Dick reading marathon in the UK, at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool. He holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne on the subject of Raymond Chandler and is currently writing a book about the whaler and explorer William Scoresby Jr. His previous books include Mystery in Children's Literature (edited with Adrienne Gavin) (Palgrave, 2001), and Cain's: The Story of Liverpool in a Pint (Liverpool University Press, 2008). He can be found online at chrisroutledge.co.uk and mottersheadandhayes.co.uk