PIECES OF HISTORY
A V O YA G E I N T O H I S T O RY
H
erman Melville’s classic American novel, Moby-Dick,
was first published in the United States on November
14, 1851. In Moby-Dick and his earlier books,
Melville called upon his own experience aboard whaling ships,
most notably his 18 months spent aboard the Acushnet, sailing
out of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The 21-year-old Melville
signed on in December 1840 but never completed the journey
with the ship. After rounding Cape Horn and sailing across
the Pacific, Melville and another crew member deserted in July
1842 while the ship was stopped at Nukahiva, one of the
Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. Their departure was
not an isolated incident; 11 of the original complement of 26
officers and men deserted at various times during the voyage.
72 Prologue
The crew list was signed by Capt. Valentine Pease on
December 31, 1841. Two days later, Pease had to amend
the list to note the first two deserters from the crew and
the late signing of a replacement. The collector of customs
for New Bedford, Massachusetts, retained a copy of the
crew list as required by an 1803 act of Congress governing
merchant ships bound for foreign ports.
The Acushnet’s list is now housed at the National
Archives–Northeast Region in Waltham, Massachusetts,
along with other crew lists from ships departing New
England ports. The sixth name from the bottom is that of
the young Melville, setting out on a voyage that would
launch him into America’s pantheon of writers. P