Melville scholars also acknowledge the huge number of parallels between White-Jacket and Billy Budd and view the former as "a major source for naval matters" in the latter.

[2] The novel takes its title from the outer garment that the eponymous main character fashions for himself on board ship, with materials at hand, being in need of a coat sufficient for the rounding of Cape Horn.

This causes him to have two near-death experiences, once when he is reclining among the canvases in the main-top and, his jacket blending in with the surrounding material, he is nearly unfurled along with the main sail; and once when, having been pitched overboard while reeving the halyards, he has to cut himself free from the coat in order not to drown.

The symbolism of the color white, introduced in this novel in the form of the narrator's jacket, is more fully expanded upon in Moby-Dick, where it becomes an all-encompassing "blankness".

[3] The mixture of journalism, history, and fiction; the presentation of a sequence of striking characters; the metaphor of a sailing ship as the world in miniature, all prefigure Moby-Dick, his next novel.

Melville described Chase, as having fought at the Battle of Navarino and deserted USS St. Louis to fight for Peruvian independence.

The ship log confirms Melville's narrative, Chase returned to the frigate on 29 May 1842 and was pardoned, at the request of the Peruvian ambassador for his services to the government of Peru.

[8] Melville writes (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."

[15][16][17] In reply, Secretary Upshur, on 26 October 1841, wrote, "the department grants your request to take your own servant aboard the frigate United States.

"[18] In White-Jacket, Lucas becomes "Guinea" the purser's body servant, the only person aboard except the hospital steward and the invalids who is exempt from being present at muster for punishment.

[19] Once in Boston, Robert Lucas was able with the help of sympathetic shipmates to flee the vessel and successfully petition Lemuel Shaw, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Melville's family friend and future father-in-law, for freedom.

[20][21] This important case Commonwealth vs. Edward Fitzgerald re Robert Lucas, became a precedent in the naval service, effectively barring enslaved individuals as seamen.

"[23] During the long voyage, six crew members died, including David Black, the ship's cooper, "Bungs", who fell overboard and perished on 4 October 1843.

The actual log entry for 4 October 1843, is terse: "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 … at 10.15 wore to the N hove to and hoisted up the 2nd Cutter, all search proving ineffectual.

More hands were wanted in one of them, and, among others, I jumped in to make up the deficiency.... For a time, in perfect silence, we slid up and down the great seething swells of the sea, but saw nothing.

cried a fourth.The same incident is described by the anonymous author of Journal of A Cruise to the Pacific Ocean, 1842-1844, in the Frigate United States, who recounts a similar set of facts and circumstances.

[31] He was inspired by Melville's "vivid description of flogging, a brutal staple of 19th century naval discipline" in his "novelized memoir" White-Jacket.

[32] During Melville's time on the 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.