page_title: White-Jacket
section_title: Legal impact
hierarchical_section_title: White-Jacket / Legal impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Log of the USS United States dated August 18 1843. Log records entry of author Herman Melville O. S. as crew member. Also records ship company muster for punishment and description of seamen to be flogged.
context_page_description: White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War is the fifth book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1850. The book is based on the author's fourteen months' service in the United States Navy, aboard the frigate USS Neversink.
context_section_description: At the urging of New Hampshire Senator John P. Hale, whose daughter, Lucy, would later become the fiancée of John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Abraham Lincoln, the United States Congress banned flogging on all U.S. ships in September 1850.  He was inspired by Melville's "vivid description of flogging, a brutal staple of 19th century naval discipline" in his "novelized memoir" White-Jacket.
  
  The man whom Melville based the fictional commodore on, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, a former commander of USS United States, was brought up on a court-martial in 1850 and 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.
  During Melville's time aboard USS United States from 1843–1844, the ship log records 163 floggings, including some on his first and second days (18 and 19 August 1843) aboard the frigate at Honolulu, Oahu. The official log entry for 18 August 1843 simply states, “Commenced with moderate breezes from the Nd & Ed. and clear.  Shipped Herman Melville. “O.S.” and Griffith Williams “O.S.” ... 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.” The following day 19 August 1843 the log records yet another muster for punishment. "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." In “A Flogging”, (chapter 33) Melville, changed this brutal scene from 19 August 1843  in Honolulu Oahu to sometime later when the frigate was at sea. He also changed 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."
caption: Log of USS United States August 18 1843 record of entry of author Herman Melville O. S. as crew
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "MG5200 series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "MP Navigator EX 4.0", "Image DateTime": "2014:12:18 14:27:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "450", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7131", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:12:18 14:27:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2111", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2406", "EXIF FileSource": "Reflection Print Scanner", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto"}