Claim: In the Heart of the Sea is a film.

In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a book by American writer Nathaniel Philbrick about the loss of the whaler Essex in the Pacific Ocean in 1820 . The book was published by Viking Press on May 8 , 2000 , and won the 2000 National Book Award for Nonfiction . It was adapted into a film of the same name , which came out in late 2015 .