The Ship Log of the Frigate USS United States 1843-1844
and Herman Melville, Ordinary Seaman
by John G. M. Sharp
“In the year 1843 I shipped as ordinary seaman on board of a United States frigate, then in a harbor of the Pacific Ocean. After remaining in this frigate for more than a year, I was discharged from the service upon the vessel’s arrival home.”
Thus begins White Jacket or the World in a Man-of-War, Herman Melville’s 1850 semi-autobiographical account of his service aboard the frigate USS United States and plea for the abolition of flogging.1 Herman Melville was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 1, 1819, and died there September 28, 1891. Celebrated as one of America’s greatest novelists, today Melville is best remembered for his novels, short-stories and poems, most especially his tales of the sea including his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851). Though Melville served in the United States Navy 1843-1844, this crucial fourteen-month period has received little attention, yet his experiences aboard the frigate USS United States were important both to his artistic development and to the improvement in public understanding of American naval life. What follows is a short introduction to Melville’s time in the navy and a transcription of portions of the actual ship log of the USS United States.1 Melville, Herman,White Jacket or the World in a Man-of-War, G. Thomas Tansselle, editor Library of America: New York 1983.
Log for August 1843 Herman Melville’s entrance onboard:
The transcribed log entries cover from when Melville first came aboard the frigate in Oahu, Hawaii, until his discharge after arrival in Boston, Massachusetts. These selected entries record the names of the ship officer’s, petty officers and seamen while providing fascinating descriptions of daily events both mundane and extraordinary. They are as well our best account of daily duties and responsibilities of ordinary seaman Herman Melville and his fellow sailors.In his narrative Melville adopts the pen name “White Jacket” and informs readers (chapter 12) he was assigned to the frigates maintop “the loftiest yard of the frigate, the main-royal-yard; that I am now enabled to give such a free, broad, off-hand, bird's-eye, and, more than all impartial account of our man-of-war world; withholding nothing; inventing nothing; nor flattering, nor scandalizing any, but meting out to all-commodore and messenger-boy alike - their precise descriptions and deserts.”2 Some modern scholars note Melville may have been stationed on the quarterdeck.3 His exact duty station is sketchy due to lack of documentation for beyond the brief entry at Oahu noting Melville’s enlistment and one final entry in the muster log for his wages, his name makes no further appearance in the ship or muster log.
2 Parker, Hershel, Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1, 1819-1851, The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore 1996p.27
3 Parker, p. 271
The ship log entries show the frigate making the return voyage from Hawaii, proceeding first to the Marquesas Islands. From the Marquesas, she then visited Valparaiso, Chile; Lima and Callao, Peru. Setting a course back in mid-1844, the United States arrived at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for resupply. Departing 24 August for Boston, she challenged and won a race with the French sloop Coquette. The United States arrived in Boston harbor on 2 October. Melville was discharged on 14 October 1844.4 The log of the USS United States is preserved in the National Archives.5 I have transcribed a selection of log entries corresponding to Melville’s, time aboard. For readers interested in comparing these entries to White Jacket, I have placed the chapter numbers in brackets alongside log entries. All log entries were composed by the officer of the deck (usually a lieutenant) and certified by him at the end of the watch. These often laconic chronicles for the most part verify Melville. While White Jacket is fictional; it is one closely based on Melville’s personal experiences and reflections. White Jacket, however, is more than a plain narrative of a cruise in a man of war. In this novel Melville transforms the USS United States to the USS Neversink, while the ship’s officers, crew and the naval service retain the essential details and chronology of the actual voyage.6 The events themselves can be compared to the ship log. The log book is our primary source, and official record of the voyage. The ship log consists of chronological entries documenting the daily activities of the vessel and crew.
4 Robertson-Lorant, Laurie, Melville: a Biography, Clarkson N. Potter: New York, 1996, p.129.
5 National Archives and Records Administration, microfilm roll T-829, Roll 446; Logs of USS UNITED STATES, Aug. 1843–Oct 1844.
6 Anderson, Charles Roberts, Melville in the South Seas, Dover: New York, 1966, p. 420.
Naval watch officers followed strict regulations and typically recorded ship course and speed and local weather such as wind direction, barometric pressure and air temperature. Their log entries also record navigational matters and personnel changes such as the entry or departure of officers and crew and anything else thought noteworthy.7 Watch officers were required to pay careful concern to the expenditure of provisions and to measure and record what provisions the frigate received and used each day. Water was essential to the sailor’s diet and typically obtained aboard by shore parties in large casks ferried back to the ship and taken aboard. Water was also collected from rain water. In an age before refrigeration, beef, pork and other perishables were preserved with salt. Salted meat “salt junk” was a staple of the mariner's diet, stored in barrels and often had to last for months spent out of sight of land. This heavily salted diet made adequate water essential.8 Each crew member was allocated about a gallon of water per day.9 Until 1862 United States naval vessels were allowed by law whiskey or rum to provide their crews with a twice daily “grog ration.”10 This ration totaled about one fourth of a pint per man per day. For Christmas day and other holidays the ration was doubled. The log (chapter 14) carefully records the supply of whiskey considered essential to crew morale and a false rumor of any grog shortage Melville writes “dreadfully alarmed the tars.
7 Log Books of the U.S. Navy at the National Archives https://www.archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy.html accessed 27 September 2017
8 Brodine, Charles E, Crawford, Michael, and Hughes, Christine. Ironsides!: The Ship, the Men and the Wars of the USS Constitution, Fireship Press, 2007, p. 66.
9 Brodine, Ironsides! p. 67.
10 Brodine, Ironsides! p. 68.
The ship surgeon daily registered the number of crew members gone on “sick report;” they averaged 15 men per day. Melville reports that although he was never officially on the sick list, when he “felt in need of a little medicine but [would on occasion] call upon the hospital steward who would mix him a potion in a tin cup…” He relates to his surprise the young apothecary charged nothing for it. In “The Hospital in a Man of War” (chapter 77), Melville contrasts merchant vessels with the naval service and finds ill naval seamen treated favorably. “The privilege of going off duty and lying by when you are sick is one of the few points in which a man-of-war is far better for the sailor than a merchantman.”
Melville paid close attention to the ship officers and frequently contrasts what he perceived as the best and the worst characteristics of naval leadership. Captain James Armstrong (chapter 5) is sketched as “Captain Claret” a heavy drinker and “Lt. Selvagee” (chapter 8.) possibly Lieutenant. Alexander Murray was described as foppish and an ineffectual officer.11 In contrast “Mad Jack”, Lt. Lantham B. Avery, is depicted by Melville as the ideal deck officer in a time of danger. When the frigate gets into trouble going around Cape Horn, it is Mad Jack who boldly countermands the captain’s orders and saves the ship.12 Melville relates (chapter 27). “In time of peril, like the needle to the loadstone, obedience, irrespective of rank, generally flies to him who is best fitted to command.” Melville recorded one other telling detail about his hero: “alas, he had one fateful failing. Mad Jack drinks…” Melville adds, “Though in fine weather he has sometimes betrayed into a glass too many, but like a good sailor “at Cape Horn even Mad Jack takes the Temperance Pledge outright till that perilous promontory should be far astern.” The ship log for 15 August and 6 September 1842 confirm Lt. Avery was in fact court marshaled and reprimanded for leaving the deck while he was drunk.13
11 Gale, Robert L. A., Herman Melville Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press: Westport, 1995 p. 407. Alexander Murray served from 22 Aug 1835 until his retirement with the rank of rear admiral 26 April 1876. Murray died 10 Nov 1884. Officers of the Continental and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-1900 http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1069
12 Avery, Latham B . Midshipman, 19 December, 1831. Passed Midshipman, 15 June, 1837. Lieutenant, 8 September, 1841. Dropped 28 September, 1855. See also Carl Edmund Rollyson, Lisa Olsen Padock and April Gentry A Critical Companion to Herman Melville: A Literary Reference to his Work Facts on File Press 2006, p. 254.13 Anderson, p. 364.
Among the enlisted crew is Melville’s hero Jack Chase captain of the maintop, in reality Englishman John J. Chase, age 53, (chapter 4) who had fought at the Battle of Navarino and deserted the USS St. Louis to fight for Peruvian independence.14 The ship log confirms Melville (chapter 5) in that Chase returned to the frigate United States on 29 May 1842 and was pardoned at the request of the Peruvian ambassador for his services to the government of Peru.15 For Melville, Chase was the most memorable man on the frigate, he was educated, manly and a friend. He was also something of a misfit for like most sailors; Chase drank and wandered the world as he willed. Melville wrote, “No man ever had a better heart or bolder.”16 He would dedicate his late (1888) masterpiece, the novella Billy Budd “to Jack Chase Englishman/ wherever that great heart may now be/ here on earth or harbored in Paradise/Captain of the Maintop in the year 1843 in the frigate U.S. United States.”
14 Gale, Robert L. , p70.
15 USS United States log entry for 29 May 1844. “Received on John J. Chase a deserter from the USS St. Louis with particular request to Comm[odore] Jones from the Peruvian Admiral (in whose service he had shipped) that he might be pardoned which was complied with by Com Jones.
16 Parker, p. 271.
Among the officers Melville came to admire was Edward Fitzgerald, the ship purser. Melville perceived in the older purser an essential decency and stoic acceptance of life that he greatly esteemed.17 In summing up his character, Melville writes (chapter 48) that he, “never coming into disciplinary contact with the seamen, and being withal a jovial and apparently good-hearted gentleman--was something of a favorite with many of the crew." As a purser, Fitzgerald was able to accumulate wealth and afford homes in both Georgetown, D.C. and Norfolk, Virginia. Like many naval officers Fitzgerald was a slaveholder. In October 1841, with the written consent of the Secretary of the Navy, he entered his “servant” (slave) Robert Lucas as a landsman (in reality his personal steward) on board the frigate United States and collected Lucas' nine dollar per month wages.18 In the novel Lucas becomes “Guinea”, the body servant whose situation Melville, who elsewhere railed against shipboard tyranny toward fellow seaman, resented Guinea as the only person aboard except the hospital steward and the invalids exempt from being present at muster for punishment. Melville went on to compare Lucas/Guinea the bondsmen’s situation with the wage slave. He wrote with some bitterness that Lucas/Guinea “in India rubber manacles enjoyed the liberties of the world” while the crew were under strict discipline and compelled to watch punishment.19 In White Jacket Melville’s empathy for the downtrodden common white sailor is never extended to the enslaved Lucas/Guinea. Melville’s thinking on slavery and race though gradually evolved. In 1855 he published Benito Cereno, his superb novella about the revolt on a Spanish slavery ship, and later during the Civil War he slowly came to support abolitionism.20
17 Parker, p. 293.
18 Edward Fitzgerald to A.P. Upshur 18 October 1841, Secretary of the Navy Letters Received, National Archives and Records Administration Record Group 45 and Parker, p. 293.19 The New Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville, Cambridge University Press, 1998 edited by Robert S. Levine, pp.61-64.
20 Wright, Nathalia (1972). "Herman Melville." Eight American Authors: A Review of Research and Criticism., edited by James Woodress. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. p. 211-212.
At the end of the frigate’s voyage (chapter 90), he writes “Upon our arrival home, his [Fitzgerald] treatment of Guinea under the circumstances peculiarly calculated to stir up the resentment of a slave-owner still more augmented my estimation of the Purser’s good heart.” Here Melville is alluding to Lucas‘s dramatic escape and subsequent trial. In October 1844, the long standing practice of enrolling an enslaved man into naval service made Lucas a celebrity. While the United States anchored in Boston, Robert Lucas made a bid for freedom with help of two white shipmates. At the trial Fitzgerald claimed Lucas as his slave. His counsel contented Lucas was brought to Boston “without the consent of his master, and therefore he might carry him back to Virginia.” Judge Lemuel Shaw, Melville’s future father-in-law, though disagreed and granted Lucas a writ of habeas corpus and his freedom.21 This important case, Commonwealth vs. Edward Fitzgerald re Robert Lucas, became a precedent in the naval service effectively barring enslaved individuals as seamen.22
21 In April 1851 Judge Lemuel Shaw in a similar case refused to release fugitive slave Thomas Sims on habeas corpus grounds. Although Shaw strongly opposed slavery, he felt bound by the Constitution and the law, the newly passed 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which required states and local governments to cooperate in the capture of escaped slaves. Robertson – Lorant, pp. 282-283.
22 The court, Judge Shaw presiding, came to the result that “Lucas was not lawfully enlisted under the laws of the United States; nor did his going voluntarily on board the frigate with his master make the enlistment a voluntary one, because a slave can give no consent. Lucas was entitled to his discharge from the United States, as not lawfully enlisted. Then he was here not as a runaway but in consequence of the voluntary act of his master; and there was no law authorizing his restraint. The result was that the slave was entitled to go where he pleased, in freedom”. Boston Courier, 17 October 1844, p. 1.
In a “Man of War Library” (chapter 41), Melville reveals his delight that sailors were avid readers and marvels at the overall quality of the ship’s library. The library was paid for by the government and the books for loan to seaman and officers. There sailors were able to read not just nautical works but histories by George Bancroft, and William Prescott, the philosophical work of John Locke, the plays of Christopher Marlow, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and even Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. Melville reports these volumes were stored in a barrel where a marine corporal served as ship librarian.23 In White Jacket (chapter 41), Melville writes, “Though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow the books that prove most agreeable, grateful and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there, those which seem put into our hands by Providence, those which pretend to little, but abound in much.” In addition to the library, Melville formed friendships with like-minded sailors with a literary or poetic inclination. In chapter 11 titled “Poetry under Difficulties”, he recalled the conversations they shared in many a quite watch.
23 In addition to Melville recollections of the frigates library, I have included some titles mentioned by Hershel Parker, pp. 267-268.
My noble captain, Jack Chase, rather patronized Lemsford, and he would stoutly take his part against scores of adversaries. Frequently, inviting him up aloft into his top, he would beg him to recite some of his verses; to which he would pay the most heedful attention, like Maecenas listening to Virgil, with a book of Aeneid in his hand. Taking the liberty of a well-wisher, he would sometimes gently criticize the piece, suggesting a few immaterial alterations. And upon my word, noble Jack, with his native born good sense, taste and humanity was not ill qualified to play the true part of a Quarterly Review; which is, to give quarter at last, however severe the critique.
Besides Jack Chase, others identified as members of this enlisted literary symposium (chapter 13) were Edward Norton “Nord” and “Williams” actually Griffin Williams ordinary seaman, a native of Maine who enlisted 18 August 1843, the same day as Melville. Some scholars believe the comic poet “Lemsford” was ordinary seaman E. Curtis Hines. These were the men whose companionship and opinions be came to value and admire. He later wrote “a whale –ship was my Yale College and my Harvard’ and his time aboard the frigate United States his post-graduate education.24
24 Erik Hage, The Melville Companion, p. 97.
Herman Melville grew up in a wealthy family and enjoyed a privileged life. Prior to naval service, his time at sea was confined to merchant and whaling vessels where discipline was often lax and corporal punishment rare. Melville quickly found he “could not have chosen a more rigidly hierarchical, oppressive and undemocratic world” then a naval frigate.25 Like many new recruits he was shocked to learn obedience to orders was a requisite of naval life enforced by often brutal punishment.
25 Robertson-Lorant, p. 117.
In the U.S. Navy corporal punishment was typically awarded for being absent without leave, drunkenness and disobedience. Such punishment could also be awarded for sleeping on watch, theft, smuggling and fighting. In the 1840’s flogging was a common punishment in almost all American men-of-war.26 Flogging was carried out by the cat-of-nine tails made from a thick rope as a handle and nine pieces of light line, knotted in places. Melville relates (chapter 33) how the frigate crew was assembled with the Boatswain shouting, “All hands to witness punishment, ahoy!” Next the marines and boatswain mates led out the malefactor. The spectacle of flogging was meant to inspire fear in the ship crew, thereby deterring misconduct and ensuring obedience to naval law.27 The seaman being punished was tied to a grating taken from one of the hatches. His wrists and ankles were tied to the grate and his back stripped. The boatswain was then ordered to cut him with the cat. The ship log reflects a typical punishment award by Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones was 12 lashes. Only a general court martial had the authority to award a more severe punishment, as it did in the case of Beverley C. Furness on 3 June 1842 when the court sentenced the seaman to 50 lashes. Commodore Jones subsequently reduced Furness’s penalty to 39 lashes. During Melville’s time aboard, the log records one hundred and sixty-three floggings, (chapters 33, 34 and 35) including some on his first morning aboard.28 Some seaman were repeat offenders such as Lloyd Hopkins, Goodwin Hynerman, Asbury Mitchell, James Wilson and Alex Windsor (see endnotes 56, 57, 61, 67 and 68). On his second day of naval service, 19 August 1843, he witnessed yet another flogging of three bandsmen George Davis, William Stewart and Antonio Guavella with 12 lashes each for drunkenness and fighting. The official log entry simply states, “Punished Geo Davis, Wm Stewart and Antonio Guavella “Bandsmen” with 12 lashes each for drunkenness.” In contrast Melville (chapter 33) vividly describes the same punishment and the crew reactions.
26 Valle, James E. Rocks and Shoals Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sail Naval Institute Press: Annapolis,1996, p.61. See also Naval History and Heritage Command Brief History of Punishment by Flogging in the U.S. Navy https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/brief-history-punishment-flogging-us-navy.html
27 Brodine, Ironsides p. 79.
28 Journal of a Cruise to the Pacific Ocean 1842-1844, In the Frigate United States with Notes on Herman Melville. Charles Roberts Anderson editor, Duke University Press: Durham 1937, p. 8.
Parker, pp. 78 and 262. The Department of the Navy as a result of Congressional demand compiled statistics for flogging during the years 1846-1847. The Department reported 5,036 floggings had been administered on sixty ships during the two years. This averages out to roughly fifty flogging per ship, per year or four per month. In comparison the frigate United States over a fourteen month period, had 163 floggings for an average of eleven per month.
All the officers--midshipmen included--stood together in a group on the starboard side of the main-mast; the First Lieutenant in advance, and the surgeon, whose special duty it is to be present at such times, standing close by his side.”
Presently the Captain came forward from his cabin, and stood in the centre of this solemn group, with a small paper in his hand. That paper was the daily report of offences, regularly laid upon his table every morning or evening, like the day's journal placed by a bachelor's napkin at breakfast. "Master-at-arms, bring up the prisoners," he said. A few moments elapsed, during which the Captain, now clothed in his most dreadful attributes, fixed his eyes severely upon the crew, when suddenly a lane formed through the crowd of seamen, and the prisoners advanced--the master-at-arms, rattan in hand, on one side, and an armed marine on the other--and took up their stations at the mast. “You John, you Peter, you Mark, you Antone," said the Captain, “were yesterday found fighting on the gun-deck. Have you anything to say? To all their supplications the Captain turned a deaf ear. Stating "No matter," said the Captain, "you struck at last, instead of reporting the case to an officer. I allow no man to fight on board here but myself. I do the fighting." "Now, men," he added, "you all admit the charge; you know the penalty. Strip! Quarter-masters, are the gratings rigged?
Melville continues
At a sign from the Captain, the master-at-arms, stepping up, removed the shirt from the prisoner. At this juncture a wave broke against the ship's side, and clashed the spray over his exposed back. But though the air was piercing cold, and the water drenched him, John stood still, without a shudder. The Captain's finger was now lifted, and the first boatswain's-mate advanced, combing out the nine tails of his cat with his hand, and then, sweeping them round his neck, brought them with the whole force of his body upon the mark. Again, and again, and again; and at every blow, higher and higher rose the long, purple bars on the prisoner's back. But he only bowed over his head, and stood still. Meantime, some of the crew whispered among themselves in applause of their ship-mate's nerve; but the greater part were breathlessly silent as the keen scourge hissed through the wintry air, and fell with a cutting, wiry sound upon the mark. One dozen lashes being applied, the man was taken down, and went among the crew with a smile, saying, "D----n me! It’s nothing when you're used to it! Who wants to fight?”
Drunkenness and smuggling of liquor were a major problem aboard the United States. Almost half the corporal punishments recorded in the ship log were connected to these two offenses.29 Melville apparently was an exemplary seaman for he was never punished or flogged. He emphasizes, however, he with the rest of the crew was forced to repeatedly witness such scenes. The instrument of punishment the “Cat of Nine Tails” was reserved was for adult sailors and the “Kittens” for ship boys. The Kittens were a lighter model reduced cat, also known as “the boy's cat.” The Kittens had only five tails of smooth whip cord. The more deadly cat was especially designed to lacerate the flesh and left both physical and emotional scars.30 Melville’s account of these punishments is confirmed in the log entries. Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones and Captain James Armstrong were consistently hard on malefactors, typically awarding eight or twelve lashes for most offenses.
29 Journal of a Cruise, p. 188 endnote 30.
30 For corporal punishment of boys or young apprentices, a lighter model was made, the reduced cat, also known as boy's cat, “the kittens” that had only five tails of smooth whip cord. The distinction between the cat and the kittens was the latter was not supposed to tear flesh. If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would suffer the punishment of the adult cat. Pietsch, Roland The Real Jim Hawkins: Ship’s Boys in the Georgian Navy Seaforth Publishing: Great Britain 2011.
In White Jacket, three chapters (33 -35) are devoted to a description and passionate denunciation of flogging and its evil effects. The United States Congress in response to critics such as Richard Henry Dana and Melville finally outlawed flogging on 28 September 1850, the same year White Jacket was published.31 Dana would later commend Melville for bringing flogging to public notice.32
31 McKee, Christopher A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: the Creation of the United States Naval Officer Corps 1794-1815 U. S. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis MD 1991,pp 233-254. Pinker, Steven The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence Has Declined Viking Press: New York 2011, p. 177.
32 Mr. Dana said he wished to add his testimony to the fact that this horror of the gangway, the lash, prevented many men from engaging in the service of the mercantile marine. His friend Herman Melville had expressed the same sentiment, and he had no hesitation in saying that more men had been killed at the gangway than at the guns. Many persons who at first expressed doubts on the expediency of the abolition of the lash, had since acknowledged they were in error, and that favorable results had followed from it. He confessed he was somewhat doubtful on the subject of carrying the act into immediate effect, but he whom he had the honor to address was a man of more faith, and he had now the satisfaction of realizing all that he could have anticipated. As the organ of the sailors who tendered to him this evidence of their respect, he entreated that among the triumphs which may yet await him, he would not forget this, their humble testimonial.” Boston Daily Atlas, October 14, 1853 see blog, “Melvilliana the world and writings of Herman Melville”, May 27, 2014 http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/search?q=US+Navy
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Besides the formal administration of discipline, Melville informed readers (chapter 34) the boatswains mates were empowered for “petty offenses”, to strike any seaman with a colt or rope’s-end, a bit ratline-stuff indiscriminately applied - without stripping the victim at any time.” He goes on to write, “Most boatswains’ mates carry the colt coiled in their hats in readiness to be administered at minute's warning.” The ship log remains silent regarding “the colt” as such actions constituted unofficial discipline and no reference to this most common shipboard occurrence. Charles Erskine a young sixteen year old sailor remembered how (in 1838) he was introduced to “the gunner’s daughter” and the colt. Erskine continued. “I was seized [by the boatswain mate] and placed over the breech of sixty-two pound Paxon gun and whipped with colt so severely that I could not sit down with any comfort for several days… when I went below and took off my clothes, I found that my trousers had been cut through and the threads were sticking to my bruised flesh.” The boatswain’s role as the agent of official and unofficial punishment with no appeal, generally made him loathed and feared.
Later (chapter 70) Melville offers his readers an all-encompassing and harsh critique of naval service as he reflects on discipline and the Articles of War which he first heard read aloud on 26 August 1843.
Does not everything around you dim the fact in your ears? Twice every day do you not Jump to your quarters at the sound of a drum? Every morning, in port, are not you roused from your hammock by the reveille, and sent to it again at nightfall by the tattoo? Every Sunday are you not commanded in the mere matter of the very dress you shall wear through that blessed day? Can your shipmates so much as drink their “tot of grog?” nay, can they even drink but a cup of water at the scuttle-butt, without an armed sentry standing over them? Does not every officer wear a sword instead of a cane? You live and move among twenty-four-pounders, White-Jacket; the very cannon-balls are deemed an ornament around you, serving to embellish the hatchways; and should you come to die at sea, White-Jacket, still two cannon-balls would bear you company when you would be committed to the deep. Yea, by all methods, and devices, and inventions, you are momentarily admonished of the fact that you live under the Articles of War. And by virtue of them it is, White-Jacket, that, without a hearing and without a trial, you may, at a wink from the Captain, be condemned to the scourge.
When Melville first stepped aboard the frigate which was to be his world for the next year the USS United States, the “Old Wagon” to her crew, was nearly fifty years old, having been built in 1797. Although old she was known as “the fastest sailor” in the American Navy, and was only 178 feet in length and 45 feet at the beam. In this small world she was home for Melville and her crew of 480 officers and men.
In both the ship log and White Jacket, mortality is prominent with Melville relating and the log confirming the various modes of death. For sailors death and burial at sea or on a foreign shore was a commonplace. The ship log recounts the death of six crew men during Melville’s time aboard. Melville himself details the death and burial of a number of his shipmates. For example, he narrates (chapter 83) “In our man-of-war world, Life comes in one gangway and Death goes overboard at the other.” Seamen like the general population suffered from a variety of maladies such tuberculosis and other often fatal disease (see 23 September 1843, 27 April 1844, 28 August 1844 and 19 September 1844). One sailor met his end in a more dramatic fashion when he was swept overboard on 4 October 1843 and lost at sea. Melville (chapter 17) relates this incident and the ship log provides the man’s name and occupation as David Black, ship cooper. For Melville, David Black becomes “Bungs” a man ironically charged with maintaining the frigate’s cork life-buoys; and is said to have exclaimed. “I will never go aloft, and don’t intend to fall overboard.” Melville adds the next day Black fell over the side and after a five hour search the frigate resumed course. Melville claims, White Jacket (chapter 92) while setting the maintop gallant sail, fell overboard in a similar highly dramatic and probably fictitious account, for there is no record of such an event in the ship log.
During his fourteen months as a seaman, Melville witnessed all of naval life. In doing so, he daily absorbed the courage, humor, degradation and endurance of his fellow seaman. White Jacket is more than a picturesque traveler’s account, it is a novel of purpose, a novel derived from harsh experience. The plot is a carefully directed and sustained attack upon naval abuses, especially flogging. The ship log in the main corroborates and substantiates his account. Critic Elizabeth Hardwick writes, “Going to sea gave Melville his art, but it also set him apart by drastic experience from most of those who surrounded him.” This hard-won knowledge which set him apart was transformed by the power of Melville’s art into a universal story and a moving plea for both humane treatment and reform in the naval service.
Nautical Terms and Abbreviations
The following nautical terms and abbreviations found in the ship log and were taken from William Henry Smyth’s 1867 The Sailor's Word-book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc., Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession the Creation of the United States Naval Officer Corps 1794-1815 U. S. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis MD 1991 pp.28-33 and Richard Henry Dana, Jr.‘s, The Seaman's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship, with Plates; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners. Thomas Groom: Boston 1851 6th edition.Able Seaman also Able-bodied seaman abbreviated A.B. in naval vessels was typically men considered the best seafarers, with years of experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". The rating of A.B., is often found on ship's books: these two letters are frequently used as an epithet for the person so rated. He must be equal to all the duties required of a seaman in a ship--not only as regards the saying to "hand, reef, and steer," but also to strop a block, splice, knot, turn in rigging, raise a mouse on the main-stay, and be an example to the ordinary seamen and landsmen. Melville was rated as “ordinary seaman” based on his service in merchant vessels and whalers but lacked the requisite experience aboard a ship of war to rate A.B.
Apprentice “App.” In the early navy apprentices were enlisted boys typically between thirteen and eighteen years of age. These young sailors were to be instructed in steering, heaving the lead, knotting and splicing, in rowing, in the use of the palm and needle, etc., that they might become qualified for rating as seamen and petty officers. The naval apprentice system was formalized and established by law in 1837
Articles of War This U S Naval regulation was first approved on 10 April 1806, by the United States Congress. The regulation enacted 101 Articles of War for the Army and the Navy. The Articles of War were not significantly revised until over a century later. The Articles compromise a varied collection of admonishments and rules that deal mainly with misconduct of officers and seaman. The Articles of War were regularly read aloud to the ship crew typically on Sundays prior to Divine Services. In chapter 70 Melville recounts the solemn nature this occasion where the crew were reminded that thirteen of the enumerated articles were capital punishable by death.
Bandsman In 1812 the frigate United States acquired an eight-piece band of French-Italian musicians who had enlisted aboard a French ship, but were captured by the Portuguese and taken to Lisbon. Here they signed on the British warship Macedonian which was captured by the Americans where the band ended up playing on the decks of the United States. Portuguese bandsmen were a common sight on the frigate. The log records the entry on duty of eleven Portuguese on 10 February 1842 “the following musicians shipped …from shore, viz John Jose, John Verrisime, Francis Barnardo, John Sabino, John Agostino, John de Silva, John Francis Luze, Francis Pedro Camache, Antonio de Gouvea, and Jacinto Valerio.” Navy bandsmen were first recognized officially in 1838, when the pay tables of the Navy Register listed the grades of Bandmaster, First and Second Class Musicians. The number of Navy bands fluctuated but gradually increased in succeeding years through the Civil War until the turn of the century, although it appears that no particular method of procurement or training of musicians was practiced. Herman Melville, recounts (chapter 12) during his voyage “ The members of the band, some ten or twelve in number who had nothing to do but keep their instruments polished and play a lively air now and then, to sooth the old Commodore’s torpid veins, were the most lively set of fellows you ever saw. They were Portuguese, who had been shipped at the Cape De Ver island, on our passage out” See Naval History and Heritage Command
http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/ratings-and-the-evolution-of-jobs-in-the-navy.htmlBoatswain “Bos.” A multipurpose petty officer, usually one of the best seaman, whose responsibilities included inspecting the ship sails and rigging each morning, and reporting their state to the officer of the watch. The boatswain was in charge of all deck activities, such as weighing or dropping anchor or handling sails. The boatswain’s role as the agent of official and unofficial punishment (see introduction) with no appeal, generally made him both loathed and feared.
Bow, The bow is forward end of any craft beginning on both sides where the planks arch inward and ending where they close, at the stem or prow.Brace up to move or turn a sail using braces to bring the yards nearer to the fore and aft by hauling on the lee brace.
Burial at Sea. The naval procedures for burial at sea, the ship has to be stopped, the chaplain or senior naval officer read brief service, the ensign lower to half-mast and the body of the deceased which was sewn in canvas, suitably weighted was committed to the deep. During Melville’s time aboard three sailors were buried at sea and one sailor was buried on Island of San Lorenzo.
Cat of Nine Tails or Cat until 1850 authorized for punishment in the U.S. Navy composed of nine pieces of cord about half yard long affixed in a thick rope handle to use for punishing transgression of the articles of war.
Catted and Fished the Anchor When the anchor crown has been hoisted to the gunwale.
Clew or Clue up or down Clew up to haul the lower corner of a square rigged sail up to the yard by means of clew lines. Clew down to secure a sail in an unfinished position.
Commodore Melville ([Chapter 6) wrote “An American commodore in the early period, like an English commodore or a French chef d'escadre, was an officer (generally, but not exclusively, a captain) assigned temporary command of more than one ship. He continued his permanent or regular rank during the assignment. Once employed as a commodore, however, many jealously held onto the [impressive title after their qualifying assignment ended. The Navy Department tried to discourage such continuing usage because it led to confusion and unnecessary rivalries.”
Furl to rollup
Futtock shrouds. are rope, wire or chain links in the rigging of a traditional square rigged ship. They run from the outer edges of a top downwards and inwards to a point on the mast or lower shrouds, and carry the load of the shrouds that rise from the edge of the top.
Gunwale The upper edge or side of a ship.
Kittens A light version on the cat o'nine tails for use on boys. See endnote no.12.
Landsman abbreviated “Lds.” Landsmen was the lowest rank of the United States Navy in the 19th and early 20th centuries; it was given to new recruits, novices with little or no experience at sea. Landsmen performed menial, unskilled work aboard ship. A Landsman who gained three years of experience or re-enlisted could be promoted to Ordinary Seaman. The rank existed from 1838 to 1921.
Larboard “larb.” The term Larboard pertains to the left hand or port side of a ship when looking toward the bow as opposed to the starboard or right side.
Liberty A pass authorizes a sailor to leave the ship and go ashore for a specified period of time. On the USS United States the crew received liberty in Callao, Peru, and Rio de Janeiro.
Lieutenant abbreviated Lt. A lieutenant was the most junior of the naval commissioned officers. Typically a frigate such as the USS United States might carry at least four lieutenants. As watch officers they were in charge of navigation, steering and ship handling during each four hour watch. A critical responsibility of the watch officer was to ensure the accuracy of the deck log transcribed below and to certify the log entry at the end of his watch. See chapter 6 for Melville’s description of the ship’s officers.
Master at Arms The master-at-arms rating is not a modern innovation. Naval records show that these "sheriffs of the sea" were charged with keeping the swords, pistols, carbines and muskets in good working order as well as ensuring that the bandoliers were filled with fresh powder before combat. Besides being chiefs of police at sea, they had to be qualified in close order fighting under arms and able to train seamen in hand-to-hand combat. In the days of sail, the master-at-arms was truly "masters at arms. The Master at Arms like the Boatswain were feared as they were often involved in disciplining or punishing sailors.
Meridian This term is used in the ship log to denote 12 o'clock or solar noon, when the Sun is at its highest altitude in the sky. The local or clock time of solar noon depends on the longitude and date.
Midshipman or “Mid.” Midshipmen in the United States Navy of this era were not commissioned officers but instead considered “prospective” commissioned officers or officer cadets. They were under the controls of a lieutenant. Midshipmen were expected to work on the ship, but were also expected to learn navigation and seamanship. They were expected to have learned already, as able seamen and volunteers, to rig sails, other duties included keeping watch, relaying messages between decks, supervising gun batteries, commanding small boats and taking command of a sub-division of the ship’s company under the supervision of one of the lieutenants.
Mizzenmast or Mizzen The third mast, or mast aft of the mainmast, on a ship.
Muster: As a verb, to muster is to assemble the entire ship’s company for an inspection, exercise, or other communal activity. Musters were held each Sunday where the crew’s names were called and tallied for pay purposes.
Officer of the Deck In the U.S. Navy the officer of the deck on a ship is the direct representative of the captain, having responsibility for the ship. In the ship log the officer of the deck is usually the lieutenant who signed the log entry.
Ordinary Seaman, “O.S.” and “Sea” Ordinary seaman was the second-lowest rank of the 19th century United States Navy, ranking above landsman and below seaman. Promotion from landsman to ordinary seaman required three years of experience or re-enlistment. An ordinary seaman who gained six years of life at sea and “knew the ropes”, that is, knew the name and use of every line in the ship’s rigging could be promoted to seaman. An ordinary seaman’s duties aboard ship included “handling and splicing lines, and working aloft on the lower mast stages and yards.
Purser A naval purser was an officer who functioned as business agent responsible for the handling of money on board, keeping the ship muster log, paying the officers and men at the end of the cruise, as well as purchasing and accounting for ship’s provisions The purser was frequently responsible for the administration of cooks and stewards. The purser also ran a ship store where he would stock and sell small items such as toiletries, tobacco sugar, tea and coffee. The purser position was unique since it offered not only salary and commission but a percentage of the profits on all non-governmental items “small stores” sold to the ship company. Because of their fiduciary functions, ship pursers were frequently perceived as dishonest and corrupt by the enlisted crew.
Quarters Quarters aboard a naval vessel is the assembly of the ship crew. On the USS United States, Quarters were held periodically for muster, instruction, assignment of tasks or to witness punishment. Typically Quarters were followed by prayers led by the chaplain or a senior naval officer.
Reef or reefing a horizontal portion of a sail that can be rolled or folded up in order to reduce the amount of canvass exposed to the wind.
Rigging The system of masts and lines on ships and other sailing vessel. In large sailing ships, such as the USS United States a mast right above the topgallant mast and the sail of such a mast.
Squall A sudden violent gust of wind or a localized storm, especially one bringing rain, snow, or sleet.
Spar A wooden, in later years also iron or steel pole used to support various pieces of rigging and sails.
Spinnaker A large sail flown in front of the vessel while heading downwind.
Starboard “starb.” The term Starboard pertains to the right-hand side of a vessel when facing the bow as opposed to the larboard or port side.
Steward A member of a vessel's crew involved in commissary duties or in personal services to officers and other crew members.
Sounding Measuring the depth of the water. Traditionally sounding is done by swinging the lead, to gauge depth of water when approaching near shore or unknown land.
Watch A watch is a term for a division of the crew, and for the time allotted to each division. The crew on the USS United States was divided into larboard and starboard watches. Herman Melville states he was in the starboard watch (see White Jacket chapter 1). The watches divided their time between them being on or off duty, on deck or below. All the ship crewmen were assigned a muster number: for example Herman Melville was number 572 while Robert J. Lucas was number 433. “Liberty” or a pass to go ashore, when granted was often done by watch: for example see 1 January 1844 at Callao, Peru, where Herman Melville and rest of the starboard watch were granted Liberty. The chaplain, purser, surgeon boatswain, carpenter, gunner, sailmaker and their mates, the first lieutenant, and the captain and first lieutenant of marines were collectively known as “idlers”, since they did not stand watches by night. These men because their jobs kept them busy throughout the day were free to sleep through the night except in case of emergency.
Whaler or Whaleship a whaler or whaling ship is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, and the catching and/or processing of whales. Melville served on the whaler Acushnet from 1841-1842.
Whaleboat or whale is a type of open boat that is relatively narrow and pointed at both ends, enabling it to move either forwards or backwards equally well. It was originally developed for whaling, and later became popular for work along beaches, since it does not need to be turned around for beaching or refloating.
* * * * * * * * * *
This transcription of was made from National Archives and Records Administration microfilm roll T-829, roll 446; “Logs of USS UNITED STATES, Aug. 1843 – Oct 1844.” Captain James Armstrong the Commanding Officer of the USS United States was a strict taskmaster and required all his midshipmen to keep a journal. Additional entries from two such journals are included for comparison with the official log. They are the journals of Midshipman William Sharp, Jr., and the anonymous Abstract of a Cruise in the Frigate United States, under the Command of Captain James Armstrong, Esquire, Bearing the Broad Pendant of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, in the Pacific Ocean, in the Years 1842 -1844.
I have striven to adhere as close as possible to the original in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and abbreviation (e.g. "Do" or "do" for ditto or same as above) including the retention of dashes, ampersands, and overstrikes. The spelling, capitalization and punctuation of the period are retained throughout. In a few cases where the early nineteenth century spelling differs from modern usage, I have so noted the modern in brackets. In the log shortened versions of words were indicated by beginning the word in regular-sized letters and ending with superscript: for example, employd for employed. In the log, given names are often abbreviated: for example, Jno for John, Jas for James and Michl for Michael. In some cases given and surnames were abbreviated typically with the last letter in superscript: for example, Chas for Charles and Jas equals James.
For clarity sake this transcript excludes the numerous recorded course changes as they would simply overwhelm and confuse readers. Where I was unable to print a clear image or where it was not possible to determine what was written, I have so noted in brackets. Where possible, I have arranged the material in a similar manner to that found in log.For Tom Randall and Vincent Vaccaro sine amicitia vitam esse nullam.
John G.M. Sharp
Concord California* * * * * * * * * *
Log Book of the U.S. Frigate United States
bearing the broad Pendant of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, James Armstrong Esq. CaptainHonolulu Island of Oahu
Friday August 18th 1843Commenced with moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed. and clear. Shipped Herman Melville. “O.S.” and Griffith Williams “O.S.”
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 8, moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed and clear at sunset and inspected crew at
W. Gwathmey
From midnight to 4, light airs from the land and clear.
L.B. Avery
From 4 to light, airs from Nd & Ed and clear. Recd fresh provisions for crew.
W. Gwathney
From 8 to meridian, light breezes from the Nd & Ed, and cloudy. at 9 a m . mustered the crew at Quarters, Punished Jno Hall, “O.S” with 12 lashes with cats for striking sentry on Post. Geo Clark “OS” with 12 of cats for smuggling liquor, Bos. C. B. Stanly “App” with 12 lashes with Kittens for fighting and Wm B Ewing “App” with 6. for using provoking language. Suspended the Boatswain from duty for disrespectful - conduct to the Officer of the Deck,- by replying when ordered by same through – Midn [Midshipman] Key, to call all hands stand by their washed clothes “ that he would ‘receive no more orders in this Ship”, or words to that effect.
F. Winslow
Sick Report 20.
Water on Hand 47.000 galls Extended 500 “ Remaining 46.500 ”
Honolulu Island of Oahu
Saturday August 19th, 1843Commenced with moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed, and clear. Recd on board a quantity of Stores in Hospital Dept. sent on shore 4 empty Bread Puncheons.
F. Winslow
From 4 to 8, moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed and clear, at sunset mustered the crew at quarters and read prayers.
F. Winslow
From 8 to midnight, light breezes from the Nd & Ed and pleasant.
L B Avery
From midnight to 4, moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed and pleasant
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 8, light airs from the Nd & Ed and clear, Rec on board fresh Beef and vegetables for the crew. at 8 crossed Royal Yards.
F. Winslow
From 8 to meridian, moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed and clear, at 9. hoisted in the 3d Cutter, and got the lower booms alongside. Punished Geo Davis, Wm Stewart and Antonio Guavella “Bandsmen” with 12 lashes each for drunkenness.L B Avery
Sick Report 18
Wood Sticks 10, 000 Rem 46,000 Rem 40,000
Water 46,500 galls Ex 500 Rem 4, 800
Bread 42,000 lbs. Exp 2000
Whiskey 4,850 galls Exp 50
Beef 149 Bshs Rem 9,500
Pork 179 Bshs Ex 500
Friday September 1st 1843
At SeaRemarks, Commenced with high breezes from the SW , clewed down Mizzen Royal and topgallant sail.
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 6 light airs and cloudy.
W. G Watkins
From 6 to 8 first part light airs and clear latter part calm. Mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers.L B Avery
From 8 to midnight, light variable airs and cloudy at 10:30 took in both lower starb foretopmast and topgallant studding sails. Furled Mizzen Royal and topgallant sail latter part light rain.
W. Gwathmey
From midnight to 4 light variable airs and cloudy with rain at intervals, at 2.30 set the Jib sails and staysails at 1 hauled down studding sails , and up foresail, at 3 hauled down Jib and Staysails.
F Winslow
West From 4 to 8 light variable airs and calm cloudy first part light rain, at 7 a light breezes sprinting up from the starboard Fore& Main tacks hoisted Jib flying jib and Staysails set the mizzen topgallant sail and Royal and starb Fore & Topgallant steering sails.
L B Avery
From 8 to meridian, light variable airs and cloudy braced in and set starb Foretopmast and lower steering sail, hauled down all Fore and aft sails at 11.30 hoisted them again.
W. Gwathmey
Distance Run this day 45.
Previously Run 45.480 +4
Whole Distance Run 4525+4
Sick Report 20.Water on Hand 40,000 galls Extended 500 Remaining 39.500
Beef on Hand 134 lbs. Extended 2 Remaining 132Sunday September 3rd 1843
At SeaCommenced with moderate breezes and cloudy weather
L B Avery
From 4 to 6 moderate breezes at 6 made a strange sail ½ Points on the lee bow.
W. Gwathmey
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy, furled Royals and sent down Royal Yard mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers at 7.30 a strange sail on the weather Quarter at 8 not visible
W.G Watkins
From 8 to midnight variable breezes and cloudy with passing showers of rain hauled down the flying jib.
L B Avery
From midnight to 4 light breezes and cloudy weather
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy at 4.30 hoisted Topgallant stay sail and flying jib and at 8 hauled them down
F. Winslow
From 8 to midnight, fresh breezes and clear at 10: 30. Read Articles of War at 11 performed Divine Service furled Mizentopgallant sail.
L B Avery
Distance Run this day 156
Previously Run 45.676
Whole Distance Run 45.832Water on Hand 39.000 galls Extended 500 Remaining 38. 500
Beef on Hand 132 lbs. Extended 2 Remaining 130Tuesday September 12th 1843
At SeaCommence with moderate breeze and cloudy at 12: 30 set larb topgallant steering sails.
L B Avery
From 4 to 6 moderate breezes and clear at sunset mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers.
W. Gwathmey
From 8 to midnight moderate breezes and passing clouds.
L B Avery
From midnight to 4 moderate breezes and cloudy at 12: 30 hauled down the Topgallant steering sails.
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 8, moderate breezes and cloudy at 7 set the Topgallant staysail and maint of gallant steering sails at 8:50 set the Spanker.
F. Winslow
From 8 to meridian moderate breezes and cloudy at 9 mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers. Exercised the 1st Division at Quarters. Punished Alex Jones with 9 lashes with the cats for Skulking.
L B Avery
Distance Run this day 200 + 4
Previously Run 46.987 +
Whole Distance Run 47.187 + 4
Sick Report 22Water on Hand 34.850 galls Extended 450 Remaining 34.400
Beef on Hand 121 lbs. Extended 2 Remaining 119Friday September 15th 1843
At SeaCommenced with moderate breeze and cloudy at 12.30 bore up 3.3 D and set Royals MainTopgallant and Fore sails at 4 set the lower steering sail and hauled down the Foreforemast staysail swell from the SW
L B Avery
From 4 to 6 moderate breezes and cloudy at sunset assembled the crew at Quarters and read prayers.
W. Gwathmey
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy with light rain at 6.30 took in lower and Topgallant steering sails. At 7.15 furled Royals and sent down the Yards hauled down flying jib. Hoisted Foretopmast staysail and hauled up the Spanker.
F. Winslow
From midnight moderate breezes and cloudy swell from the S
L B Avery
From midnight to 4 moderate breezes and cloudy
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy with passing showers of rain at 4.30 hauled up weather clue up mainsail and down Fore of Main Topmast stayed sails at 7.30 set the larb lower and Topgallant steering sails.
F. Winslow
From 8 to meridian moderate breezes and cloudy with occasional light rain and a heavy swell from the S at 9 mustered the crew at and read prayers at 11 – kept her SSE squared Yards, hauled up the Mainsail set the starb steering sails hauled up the jib and clewed up the Mizzen topgallant sail. Punished Wm. Colgan “O.S.” and Geo. Carter “O.S.” with 9 lashes each for disobedience of Orders.
L B Avery
Distance Run this day 189.4
Previously Run 47.492 + 4
Whole Distance Run 47.682
Sick Report 20
Water on Hand 33, 700 galls Expanded 470 Remaining
Beef on Hand 117 lbs. Expanded 2 Remaining 115Wednesday September 20th 1843
At SeaCommences with moderate breezes and clear at 12.15 hrs., up the Spinnaker at 2.30 discovered the starb mainsail - back reef to be stranded, furled Maintopgallant sail clewed down the topsail repaired and 3.15 set it again with the topgallant sail.
F. Winslow
From 4 to 6 moderate breezes and pleasant, a heavy head sea at 6 mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers.
L B Avery
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and passing cloud.
W. Gwathmey
From 8 to midnight, moderate breezes and clear.
F. Winslow
From midnight to 4 first part moderate and latter part fresh breezes and pleasant with passing clouds a heavy head sea.
L B Avery
From 4 to 8 moderate breezes and passing clouds with a head sea.
W. Gwathmey
From 8 to meridian moderate breezes first part clear, latter part cloudy with a light shower of rain, at 9 A.m. mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers. Punished Edw. Doughty “O.S.” & Thos. Davis “O.S.” with 10 lashes of the cats each for fighting. Employd moving new Maintopsails braces.
F. Winslow
Distance Run this day 157 + 4
Previously Run 48. 264 +4
Whole Distance 48. 422
Sick Report 22Saturday September 23rd 1843
At SeaCommences with moderate breezes and clear
F. Winslow
From 24 to 6 moderate breezes and cloudy furled Mizen Topgallant sail stowed flying jib at sunset reefed topsails, mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers.
L B Avery
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy with a swell from the SW at 9 furled topgallant sails and furled up the Spanker, at 10: 45 Conly Dougherty “Sea” departed this life.
F. Winslow
From midnight to 4 fresh breezes and cloudy a heavy head sea.
W. Gwathmey
From 4 to 5, fresh breezes and clear with a head sea at 7: 30 set Spanker and Maint of gallant sail.
L B Avery
From 8 to meridian moderate breezes passing clouds with a heavy head sea Raised new mizzen of gallant type at 9 inspected the crew at Quarters and read prayers at 10:30 Called all hands “bury the Dead” half masted the Ensign read the burial service and committed to the deep the body of Conley Dougherty “Sea’ [Seaman]
F. Winslow
Distance Run this day 150 + 4
Previously Run 48. 709 +
Whole Distance Run 48. 860
Sick Report 18Water on Hand 29.600 galls
Whiskey 46.000 galls
Bread 32.000 lbs.
Wood 7.500 stick
Pork 151lbs
Beef 106 lbs.Monday September 25th 1843
At SeaCommences with moderate breezes and cloudy weather
W. Gwathmey
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and cloudy
L B Avery
From 8 to midnight moderate breezes and passing clouds
W. Gwathmey
From midnight to 4, fresh breezes and passing clouds at 1 furled Fore & Main Topgallant sails, and at 2.00 set them again.
F. Winslow
From 4 to 8 fresh breezes and cloudy.
L B Avery
From 8 to meridian fresh breezes and clear at 9 – mustered the crew and read prayers. Sent down the mizzen gallant Yard and unbend the sail Punished Nicholas O’ Donnel with 9 lashes with the kittens for neglect of duty and disobedience of orders.
W. Gwathmey
Distance Run this day 208
Previously Run 49. 025
Whole Distance Run 49.228
Sick Report 13Water on Hand 28, 500 galls Expanded 500 Remaining 28,000
Pork on Hand 149 lbs. Expanded 2 Remaining 147Wednesday October 4th 1843
At SeaCommences with moderate breezes and clear.
L B Avery
From 4 to 6 moderate breezes and clear weather
W. Gwathmey
From 6 to 8 moderate breezes and clear at sundown – mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers.
F. Winslow
From 8 to midnight , moderate breezes and clear.
Daniel F. Dulany
From midnight to 4. Moderate breezes and clear, set starb. Maingallant steering sail
L B Avery
From 4 to 8 moderate breezes and clear weather at 5.22 David Black (Cooper) fell overboard, hove to with maintop sail to the mast and sent the Barge & 2nd Cutter in search of him, hauled down al steering sails, at 5.50 filled away and braced down all steering sails, tacked ship as occasion required to preserve our position with the boats, at 7.50 hauled up the course, laid the maintop sail to the mast and hoisted the cornet.
W. Gwathmey
From 8 to meridian moderate breezes and clear, at 9 wore ship to Nd & Ed mustered the crew at Quarters read prayers, boats employd with fresh search crews searching for the Man overboard, at 9 .30 filled away and set course at 10 tacked to the Sd hove to and hoisted up the Barge, at 10.15 wore to the N hove to and hoisted up the 2nd Cutter, all search proving ineffectual at 10.45 filled away out course set Foresail, lee clear of Mainsail topgallant sails Royals and starb steering sails
F. Winslow
Distance Run this day 164
Previously Run 50. 734.4
Whole Distance Run 50.899.4
Sick Report 11Water on Hand 28, 500 galls Expanded 500 Remaining 28,000
Pork on Hand 149 lbs. Expanded 2 Remaining 147Friday October 6th 1843
Anna Maria Bay,Nukahiva
[Marquesas Islands]Commences with moderate breezes from the Sd and pleasant weather, standing in for the anchorage. At 2.30 released sail to topsails & topgallant sails and hove to with Maintopsail to the mast. Off the entrance of the Harbor fired a gun and hoisted the Jack at the Fore, for a Pilot. At 3 Rec the Pilot aboard and filled away and set course standing in, at 3.30 shortened sail & came to with larb anchor in 14 fathoms of water, veered 50 fathoms and furled sails. Eastern Sentinel bearing per compass S.S.E. Western Sentinel S. by W. and flag staff on the Fort N. E.
F. Winslow
From 4 to 6 light airs from the Ed. and clear, saluted the French Fort with 21Guns which was returned with an Equal numbers. The French Admiral visited the Ship and was saluted with 13 Guns which was returned by his Ship with an equal number. The French Admiral saluted Admiral Jones, with 13 Guns, which was returned with an equal number send down Royal Yard & mustered at Quarters.
Daniel F. Dulany
From 6 to 8 light breezes and clear.
L.B.Avery
From 8 to midnight, light breezes and passing clouds.
W. Gwathney
From midnight to 4. Moderate breezes and clear, set starb. Maingallant steering sail
L B Avery
From 4 to 8 light airs from the N and pleasant
F.Winslow
From 8 to meridian light airs from the Sd.Ed. and clear. Set up Mizen and Foretopmast rigging and backstays, bend another jib loosed Mainsail to repair it. Painters outside blacking the bends, Gunners crew blacking the Battery. Sailmakers repairing the Mainsail.
L.B.Avery
Sick Report 11
Water on Hand 23 000 galls Expanded 500 Remaining 22,500
Pork on Hand 91 lbs. Expanded 2 Remaining 89Wednesday October 28th 1843
At SeaCommences with moderate breezes and cloudy, later fresh breezes & squally with rain. At 12.18 double reefed the Mizon topsail. At 12.30 hauled down the Foretopmast steering sail, stowed flying jib & staysails, hauled up the mainmast, double reefed the Foretopmast & furled the Mizentopmast , passed the jib stay in the eye. Employd fitting it afresh in furling the Mizentopsail, Jas Craddock “Sea”, fell from the yard on to the Quarter deck fracturing and arm and a leg.
F. Winslow
From 4 to 6 fresh breezes and cloudy with rain, at 5.30 called all hand sent down the Fore& Mizzen topgallant yard & furled the Mainsail
Daniel F. Dulany
From 6 to 8 strong breezes and clear at sundown At 7 wind hauling forward squared yards bend gear & set the Maintopgallant sail crossed the Fore & mizzen yard a swell from the west.
L.B.Avery
From 8 to midnight , fresh breezes and cloudy.
W. Gwathmey
From midnight to 4. Moderate breezes and cloudy
Daniel F. Dulany
From 4 to 8 first part fresh breezes & clear, latter fresh breezes & cloudy with rain at daylight turned the reef out& topsails set the Mizzen & Topsails, Maintopgallant sails and clew of Mainsail. At 6.30 Set steering sail , clewed down mizzen sail yard hauled up clew of Mainsails to a squall Sailmakers repairing the Foretopgallant sail.
F. Winslow
From 8 to meridian strong breezes and clear, at 8.15 set the Fore & Main top gallant sails At 9 mustered the crew at Quarters and read prayers. Set the starb lower Foretopmast & both topgallant steering sails, hauled down Foretopmast stay sail and loosed light sails to dry, a heavy swell from the W.
L.B. Avery
Distance Run this day 226 .2
Previously Run 53.668
Whole Distance Run 53.291.3
Sick Report 13Water on Hand 41.000 galls Expanded 500 Remaining 40,500
Whiskey 4,500 galls Expanded 50 Remaining 4,450
Bread 22,000 Ex 2,000 Rem 20,000
Pork 124 Bkls ex 5 Rem 65
Beef 65 Bks Ex 00 Rem 65Log Book of the US Frigate United States bearing the broad Pendant of Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, James Armstrong Esq. Captain
Valparaiso Chile
Friday November 24th 1843Commenced with and until 8PM with moderate breezes from the S and clear. Rec the following articles Viz, 2lbs Blk Silk 1 gross knives, 2 do tape, 2 do cotton, and ½ do Scissors and 50 pieces of Blk Ribbon. Rec a tank load of water, barrel turpentine & 3 planks, fitted new Mainsail, bend sheet cable and unbent larb chain. Carpenters taking the measure of larb Hawse pipe and making mold for new one, at sundown mustered the crew at Quarters.
L.B. Avery
From 8 to Midnight moderate breezes from the S and clear. The English Steamer arrived from Callao.
W. Gwathmey
To 4 light breezes and clear.
F. Winslow
From 4 to light airs from the S. and clear. At 8 hoisted the colors half-mast in Commemoration of the death of the Honorable Mr. Legare Late Secretary of State of the United States
L.B. Avery.
From 8 to meridian, light breezes from the N.W. and pleasant at 9 Quarters and read prayers crew employed painting ship outside. Recd in Carpenters Dept. 15 galls turpentine. In Pursers Dept.18 Blankets, Gunners crew blacking guns. Sailmakers repairing sail. At Meridian fired 17 guns in Commemoration of the Hon. Mr. Legare.
W. Gwathmey
Sick report 23
Water on Hand 38, 003 galls Extended 533 Remaining 37,500
Whiskey 4,165 galls Extended 45 Remaining 4120
Bread 14,000 Bhls Extended 2,000 Remaining 12,000
Pork 101 Bhls Extended 00 Remaining 101
Beef 36 Bhls. Extended 00 Remaining 36
Wood 6,000 sticks Extended 1,000 Remaining 5,000* * * * * * * * * *
Where do these End Notes belong in this file?
The first 32 are located at the beginning of the file.
END NOTES
Melville, Herman White Jacket or the World in a Man-of-War G. Thomas Tansselle editor Library of America :New York 1983
Parker, Hershel Herman Melville A Biography Volume 1, 1819 -1851 The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore 1996p.27.
Parker, p. 271.
Robertson–Lorant, Laurie Melville : a Biography.Clarkson N. Potter: New York, 1996, p.129.
National Archives and Records Administration microfilm roll T-829, Roll 446; Logs of USS UNITED STATES, Aug. 1843 – Oct 1844.
Anderson, Charles Roberts, Melville in the South Seas, Dover: New York, 1966, p.420.
Log Books of the U.S. Navy at the National Archives https://www.archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy.html accessed 27 September 2017Brodine, Charles E, Crawford, Michael, and Hughes, Christine. :Ironsides!: The Ship, the Men and the Wars of the USS Constitution. Fireship Press, 2007,p.66.
Brodine Ironsides! p.67.
Brodine, Ironsides!
p.68.Gale, Robert L. A Herman Melville Encyclopedia Greenwood Press: Westport, 1995 p.407.Alexander Murray served from 22 Aug 1835 until his retirement with the rank of rear admiral 26 April 1876. Murray died 10 Nov 1884. Officers of the Continental and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-1900 http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1069
Avery, Latham B . Midshipman, 19 December, 1831. Passed Midshipman, 15 June, 1837. Lieutenant, 8 September, 1841. Dropped 28 September, 1855. See also Carl Edmund Rollyson, Lisa Olsen Padock and April Gentry A Critical Companion to Herman Melville: A Literary Reference to his Work Facts on File Press 2006, p. 254.
Anderson, p.364.
Gale, Robert L. , p70.
USS United States log entry for 29 May 1844. “Received on John J. Chase a deserter from the USS St. Louis with particular request to Comm[odore ]Jones from the Peruvian Admiral (in whose service he had shipped) that he might be pardoned which was complied with by Com Jones.
Parker, p. 271.
Parker, p. 293.
Edward Fitzgerald to A.P. Upshur 18 October 1841, Secretary of the Navy Letters Received, National Archives and Records Administration Record Group 45 and Parker, p.293.
The New Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville Cambridge University Press, 1998 edited by Robert S. Levine, pp.61-64.
Wright, Nathalia (1972). "Herman Melville." Eight American Authors: A Review of Research and Criticism., edited by James Woodress. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.p.211-212.
In April 1851 Judge Lemuel Shaw in a similar case refused to release, fugitive slave Thomas Sims, on habeas corpus grounds. Although Shaw strongly opposed slavery he felt bound by the Constitution and the law, the newly passed 1850 Fugitive Slave Act which required states and local governments to cooperate in the capture of escaped slaves. Robertson – Lorant, pp.282 -283.
The court, Judge Shaw presiding, came to the result that “Lucas was not lawfully enlisted under the laws of the United States; nor did his going voluntarily on board the frigate with his master; make the enlistment a voluntary one, because a slave can give no consent. Lucas was entitled to his discharge from the United States, as not lawfully enlisted. Then he was here not as a runaway, but in consequence of the voluntary act of his master; and there was no law authorizing his restraint. The result was that the slave was entitled to go where he pleased, in freedom”. Boston Courier 17 October 1844, p.1.
In addition to Melville recollections of the frigates library, I have included some titles mentioned by Hershel Parker, pp.267-268.
Erik Hage The Melville Companion , p.97.
Robertson – Lorant, p.117.
Valle, James E. Rocks and Shoals Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sail Naval Institute Press: Annapolis,1996, p.61. See also Naval History and Heritage Command Brief History of Punishment by Flogging in the U.S. Navy https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/brief-history-punishment-flogging-us-navy.htmlBrodine, Ironsides p.79.
Journal of a Cruise to the Pacific Ocean 1842-1844, In the Frigate United States with Notes on Herman Melville. Charles Roberts Anderson editor, Duke University Press: Durham 1937, p.8.
Parker, pp. 78 and 262. . The Department of the Navy as a result of Congressional demand compiled statistics for flogging in during the years 1846 -1847. The Department reported 5, 036 floggings had been administered on sixty ships during the two years. This averages out to roughly fifty flogging per ship, per year or four per month. In comparison the frigate United States over a fourteen month period, had 163 floggings for an average of eleven per month.
Journal of a Cruise, p. 188 endnote 30.
For corporal punishment of boys or young apprentices, a lighter model was made, the reduced cat, also known as boy's cat, “the kittens” that had only five tails of smooth whip cord. The distinction between the cat and the kittens was the latter was not supposed to tear flesh. If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would suffer the punishment of the adult cat. Pietsch, Roland The Real Jim Hawkins: Ship’s Boys in the Georgian Navy Seaforth Publishing: Great Britain 2011.
McKee ,Christopher A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession the Creation of the United States Naval Officer Corps 1794-1815 U. S. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis MD 1991,pp 233-254. Pinker, Steven The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence Has Declined Viking Press: New York 2011,p.177
“Mr. Dana said he wished to add his testimony to the fact that this horror of the gangway, the lash, prevented many men from engaging in the service of the mercantile marine His friend Herman Melville, had expressed the same sentiment, and he had no hesitation in saying that more men had been killed at the gangway than at the guns. Many persons who at first expressed doubts on the expediency of the abolition of the lash, had since acknowledged they were in error, and that favorable results had followed from it. He confessed he was somewhat doubtful on the subject of carrying the act into immediate effect, but he whom he had the honor to address was a man of more faith, and he had now the satisfaction of realizing all that he could have anticipated. As the organ of the sailors who tendered to him this evidence of their respect, he entreated that among the triumphs which may yet await him, he would not forget this, their humble testimonial.” Boston Daily Atlas, October 14, 1853 see blog, “Melvilliana the world and writings of Herman Melville”, May 27, 2014 http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/search?q=US+Navy
Erskine, Charles Twenty Years before the Mast, R.R.Donnelley & Sons, 2006, p.21.
Nishiura, Toru, "The Description of the Characters in Herman Melville's White-Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War" (2005).Theses Dissertations and Capstones.Paper 739. http://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1756&context=etd
Journal of a Cruise,p.77.
White Jacket p. 712.
Anderson, p.414.Parker, p.425.
Hardwick, Elizabeth Melville in Love New York Review of Books, 15 June 2000
Journal of a Cruise,p.123 , note 12.
Brodine, Ironsides! p. 60.
Parker, p.181.
Anderson, p.489.
Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Midshipman, 22 November, 1805. Lieutenant, 24 May, 1812. Master Commandant, 28 March, 1820. Captain, 11 March, 1829. Reserved List, 13 September, 1855. Died 30 May, 1858. Jones has reputation for severity, and was brought up on a court-martial in 1850. He was found guilty on three counts mostly related to "oppression" of junior officers. Jones was relieved of command for two and a half years. In 1853, President Millard Fillmore reinstated him and in 1858, the United States Congress restored his pay. Gene A. Smith , Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Commodore of Manifest Destiny. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 2000
Armstrong, James. Midshipman, 15 November, 1809. Lieutenant, 27 April, 1816. Master Commandant, 3 March, 1825. Captain, 8 September, 1841. Commodore, Retired List, 4 April, 1867. Died 25 August, 1868.
Gwathmey, Washington. Midshipman, 21 July, 1832. Passed Midshipman, 23 June, 1838. Lieutenant, 28 June, 1843. Dismissed 17 April, 1861.
Avery, Latham B., AKA “Mad Jack” Midshipman, 19 December, 1831. Passed Midshipman, 15 June, 1837. Lieutenant, 8 September, 1841. Dropped 28 September, 1855. See also Carl Edmund Rollyson, Lisa Olsen Padock and April Gentry A Critical Companion to Herman Melville: A Literary Reference to his Work Facts on File Press 2006, p. 254.
Key, Henry H. Midshipman, 10 September, 1841. Resigned 2 May, 1848
Winslow, Francis. Midshipman, 8 July, 1833. Passed Midshipman, 8 June, 1839. Lieutenant, 24 November, 1844. Commander, 6 May, 1862.Winslow died 26 August, 1862.
In “A Flogging”, (chapter 33) Melville, changed this brutal scene from 19 August 1843 in Honolulu to sometime later when the frigate was at sea. He also changes the names of the crewmen punished to John, Peter, Mark and Antone and the charge from drunkenness to fighting. “Antone, the Portuguese” is clearly based on his recollection of Antonio Guavella.
Lee bow, the bow side with the wind blowing toward it.
Melville describes his introduction to the “Articles of War.” He writes (chapter 70) of the twenty enumerated offenses which are penal thirteen are punishable by death.” He emphatically objects “As, month after month, I stand bareheaded among my shipmates, and hear this document read, I have thought to myself, well, well White – Jacket you are in a sad box indeed.”
Skulking, keeping out of sight, avoiding duty.
Conly Daugherty Seaman died 23 September 1843 died of heart t disease.” Journal of A Cruise, p.72
“In furling the Mz topsail Jas Craddock sea[man] fell from the yard and struck on the starb horse block smashing it and breaking and arm &leg. His fall was caused in consequence of the bunt jigger parting from the sail. It was not fitted properly in the first place being merely French Senet stitched on the sail, very lightly. He was leaning over the yard gathering up the sail when this parted allowing the sail to drop suddenly pitching forward of the yard.”
Midshipman William H. Wilcox quoted in Parker, p. 276.Secretary of State Hugh Swinton Legare 1797 -1843.
Commodore David Porter 1 February 1780 – 3 March 1843 was an officer in the United States Navy in the rank of captain and the honorary title of commodore. Porter commanded a number of U.S. naval ships, including the famous USS Constitution. He saw service in the First Barbary War, the War of 1812 and in the West Indies. On 2 July 1812, Porter hoisted the banner "Free trade and sailors' rights" as captain of the USS Essex. See Daughan, George C. The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the U.S.S. Essex during the War of 1812 Basic Books; 2013
Alex Windsor was another repeat offender having been punished with 6 lashes with the cats for insubordinate conduct on 31 May 1842 and again 1 January 1844 with 12 lashes for smuggling liquor. .Lloyd Hopkins Seaman had been previously punished on 28 May with 12 lashes for neglect of duty 31 May 1842 for insubordination and again on 29 October 1842 with 12 lashes for disorderly conduct.
Lardner, James L. Midshipman, 10 May, 1820. Lieutenant, 17 May, 1828. Commander, 21 November, 1851. Captain, 19 May, 1861. Commodore, 16 July, 1862, Retired List, 20 November, 1864. Rear Admiral on Retired List, 25 July, 1866, Died 12 April, 1881.
Lardner, James L. see end note 60..
Asbury Mitchell “O.S.” was a repeat offender , see 3 and 10 January1844 and 2 and 3 July 1844.
Lardner, James L. see end note 60
Lardner, James L. see end note 60..
Lardner, James L. see end note 60
Goodwin Hynerman “O.S.” had been previously disciplined on 13 January 1844.
Lieutenant Daniel French Dulany 1 April 1828 dropped 28 February 1855.
William A. Nelson Assistant Surgeon, 9 December 1839 – 21 November 185, later Surgeon , resigned 1858.David Roberts “O.S.” was a repeat offender punished again 19 and 30 January 1844 for drunkenness and fighting.
The quintal is a historical unit of mass in many countries which is usually defined as 100 base units of either pounds or kilograms.
James Wilson “O.S.’ was previously disciplined for drunkenness on 16 January 1844.
William Moore “O.S.” was previously disciplined for gambling on 12 January 1844.
Naval grog was mixed and distributed from a tub which was typically a large barrel. While this entry is unclear, Seaman Beaty was attempting either to double the ration or the strength of the grog. In 1848 Department of the Navy began to report to the Congress quarterly on the punishments awarded to enlisted personnel. Doubling the grog tub is noted in Quarterly Report of Persons Punished on board the U.S. Frigate United States, November 18, 1847-February 18, 1848, when the offense was punished with 12 lashes in each instance. Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration see Archivist of the United States blog dated 18 July 20 11
https://aotus.blogs.archives.gov/2011/07/18/grog-and-flog/Louis Phillippe King of France born 6 October 1773 died 26 August 1850 reigned from 1830 to 1848.
Ralph W. Emerson Ordinary Seaman, died 26 April 1844 age 24 cause of death “Inflammation of the Bowels” Journal of A Cruise, p.77.
Midshipman William Sharp 9 Sep 1841, 10 Aug 1847, 15 Sep 1855, 15 Sep 1855 Midshipman, Passed Midshipman, Master, Lieutenant.
Cornelius K. Stribling Midshipman, 18 June, 1812. Lieutenant, 1 April, 1818. Commander, 28 January, 1840. Captain, 1 August, 1853. Retired List, 21 December, 1861. Commodore on Retired List, 16 July, 1862. Rear Admiral, Retired List, 25 July, 1866. Died 17 January, 1880. .
Josiah Faxon Sailmaker died 30 June 1844 cause of death “Inflammation of the lungs” Journal of A Cruise, p.77.
Midshipman Frederick P. Baldwin 30 September 1841 Dismissed 6 June 1845.
Midshipman Robert A. Knapp, Passed 7 Dec 1837, 29 Jun 1843 and Midshipman Alexander F Warley
17 Feb 1840, 11 Jul 1846, 1 Mar 1855, 14 Sep 1855
Lieutenant John B. Randolph, Midshipman 11 June 1833 Lieutenant 29 May 1846 died 20 July 1854.
Cabo Frio (Cold Cape) is a Brazilian municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, founded by the Portuguese on November 13, 1615.
Henry William, Captain’s Cook age 32, died August 27, 1844 of “consumption of the lungs” tuberculosis see Journal of A Cruise,p.77.
John Parker Seaman had previously been disciplined 16 January 1844 for smuggling liquor.
John Hopkins Seaman, age 31 died 18 September1844 cause of death “apoletic” Journal of A Cruise, p.77.