White Jacket: The World on a Man-of-War

Written by Herman Melville (who was best known for his classic whaling novel), White Jacket was first published in 1850. It is considered to be a semi-biographical book, written from Melville's own personal experiences while returning home to the Atlantic Coast from the South Seas with the American Navy on a man-o'-war vessel. During 1834-44, Melville served as an ordinary seaman aboard the U.S. frigate United States. A critically acclaimed novel, White Jacket won political support for its stand against the use of flogging as corporal punishment aboard naval vessels. It is not known if White Jacket was directly responsible for the cessation of flogging; however, members of Congress received copies of the novel during the Congressional debate over the issue, and flogging in the U.S. Navy was abolished that year. Subtitled The World in a Man-of-War, the novel depicts life aboard a typical frigate, the Neversink, and describes the tyrannies to which ship's officers subject ordinary seamen and the appalling conditions under which the seamen live.