Herman Melville 
Redburn 
His First Voyage

Sea voyages and the vagaries of life on a ship are constant themes in the work of Herman Melville. In the novel Redburn, Melville sharply contrasts the refined sensibilities of the title character, an upper-class American youth, with the coarse manners of his Liverpudlian shipmates. The novel is notable for its finely drawn characters and piercing social criticism.