Herman Melville
A Sketch of His Life and Times |
| Herman Melville was born in 1819, the son of Allan and Maria Melville. He was one of a family of eight childrenfour boys and four girlswho who lived during his childhood in comfortable circumstances in the "right" neighborhoods of New York City, and was descended from colonial families. |
| Herman idolized his father but there is some evidence that while he loved his mother, her strict Calvinist Presbyterian sense of proper behavior in her children aroused in the rebellious-spirited Herman a conflict that was never resolved. |
| This became all the more significant in 1830 when his father's business failed. Herman, then on the verge of adolescence, suffered great tragedy when his father, unable to cope with the strain of debts and misfortune, died shortly afterward. For the next seven years life was uneven for the Melville family as they received varying degrees of support from relatives. After a short stint in a business house in New York City, Herman resolved to go to sea. |
| He signed on as a "boy" on the British ship the St. Lawrence and sailed with her across the Atlantic to Liverpool and on the return voyage to America. While life as a sailor was harsh, his thirst for the sea was not quenched. He immediately signed on a whale ship the Acushnet, which made the long voyage around South America and into the Pacific. The ship finally dropped anchor at a beautiful isle of the Marquesas. The filth of the ship, the wretched crew, and the brutality of the officers caused Melville and a companion to desert and flee into the interior of the island. Inadvertently they came upon a group of cannibals; fortunately the cannibals "adopted" the two white men, but refused to let them return to the harbor. His companion, Toby Greene, finally escaped. Melville remained, and, in many respects, admired the simple and peaceful life of the natives. But despite the pleasures, Melville became restless and successfully escaped to an Australian whaling ship, the Lucy Ann, which was no better than the Acushnet. When it landed at Tahiti young Melville again deserted, this time with the ship's "doctor," named Long Ghost. After a pleasant stay among the tribesmen, Melville sailed to Hawaii on a Nantucket whaler called the Charles and Henry. In Hawaii he signed on as a seaman on the U.S. man-of-war, the frigate United States. Melville was outraged by the floggings administered to the seamen. When the ship finally arrived in Boston in 1844, Melville obtained his release. His days at sea were forever ended. |
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