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Herman Melville[a] (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851). His work was almost forgotten during his last 30 years. He wrote the story Typee which contained the heroine "Tondelayo" who "stood up in the bow of the boat, unfurling her sarong like the sail on a ship, giving added speed to finally escape her father and the pursuing rowers who aided him'. The quote is from memory but I remember the story well. The event was of course fictional, somewhere in the Marquises islands but the residents have constructed things to aid tourism by supporting the tale captaincooldown@gmail.com