The creation of Billy Budd depended on the amalgamation of several sources. According to the dedicatory page, Melville owed much to his former sea buddy, Jack Chase, whose rugged good looks and ebullient spirit served as the model for Billy. Likewise, Melville himself was once a handsome, rebellious sailor and fathered two boys who came to unfortunate ends, one a suicide and the other a wandering seaman and ne'er-do-well.
The setting harks back to Melville's memories of his navy years aboard the man-of-war United States. More significant to the subject matter was a scandal resulting from an abortive mutiny on the U.S. brig-of-war Somers on December 1, 1842. The captain, Alexander Mackenzie, convened a shipboard court and, at his officers' direction, ordered the hanging of three troublemakers, one of whom was the son of Secretary of War John Spencer.
When the Somers returned to port, Mackenzie met the fury of the influential Spencer family, yet survived both a military and civil tribunal with his honor intact. However, facts revealed in public testimony cast doubt on the captain's sanity. Melville read of these proceedings in the Albany newspapers and received eyewitness accounts of the alleged mutiny from his cousin Guert Gansevoort, a lieutenant aboard the Somers who guarded the prisoners and assisted at their executions. Gansevoort publicly condoned the captain's actions, but privately sided with the victims.
