From his own experiences as a 'boy' on a packet ship sailing between New York and Liverpool, Melville wove the story of Wellingborough Redburn: a tale of pastoral innocence transformed into disenchantment and disillusionment. Within the taut power structure of life aboard ship, the young Redburn suffers the bullying and brutality of officers and men, and encounters below deck the dominating presence of the sickly and manic Jackson.