White Jacket written by Herman Melville best known for his classic whaling novel was first published in 1850 and 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. In the note preceding the novel Melville states "In the year 1843 I shipped as ordinary seaman on board of a United States frigate then lying in a harbor of the Pacific Ocean. After remaining in this frigate for more than a year I was discharged from the service..."