This Week in History

November 14, 1851, Herman Melville’s classic American novel, Moby-Dick, was first published in the United States. The novel captures Melville’s real-life experiences aboard a whaling ship. Melville was a crew member aboard the whaling ship Acushnet, and departed from New Bedford, Massachusetts on January 3, 1841.

Melville was 21 years old when he signed on in December 1840, he never completed the...