A Melville Chronology, 1841-51

• January 3, 1841, ships as a foremast hand on the whaleship Acushnet.


• July 9, 1842, deserts ship at Nukuhiva in the Marquesas Islands. Spends a month with the cannibals of the Taipi valley.


• August 9, 1842, escapes by joining the crew of the Sydney whaler Lucy Ann.


• October 5, 1842, placed ashore at Tahiti with ten other crewmen, and tried before the Consul for mutiny. Lightly imprisoned in Tahiti. A beachcomber on Moorea.


• November 1842, ships on whaleship Charles & Henry.


• May 1843, discharged at Lahaina, goes to Honolulu to work for a merchant as clerk and bookkeeper.


• August 17, 1843, enlists on U.S. Navy ship United States. Ship calls at Nukuhiva, Tahiti, and Callao.


• October 14, 1844, discharged from the navy at Boston.


• 1846, very successful publication of Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life.


• 1847, publication of a sequel, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas.


• 1849, publication of Mardi.


• 1850, publication of White-Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War.


• 1851, Moby-Dick published to mixed reviews.

SOURCE: In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon, by Joan Druett (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004), pp. 233