Philbrick’s own gripping narrative of the fate of the Essex, “In the Heart of the Sea,” marked a turning point in his career. It won a National Book Award, in 2000, spent forty weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, was adapted into a Hollywood movie, and made its author an eminence in the field of Dad History. Philbrick’s subsequent books include popular-in-both-senses accounts of the Mayflower, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Battle of Yorktown.