<p>When an American sea captain sees a Spanish slave ship in distress he reaches out with an offer to help. Once on board however the odd behavior of the captain crew and slaves leave him with an uneasy feeling that something is not as it seems. Melville based the plot of this novella on real events that occurred off the coast of Chile in 1799. Though it is not Melville’s best-known work it is favored among scholars as one of his most complex.</p>