A shipping record has emerged showing Moby Dick author Herman Melville signing up for a whaling voyage across the Pacific which would inspire him to write the American classic.

Melville, then just 21 years old, is featured on a list of crew members for the Acushnet whaling vessel, which launched from New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1841.

The entry includes physical characteristics of the young Melville, who was living in nearby Fairhaven before the launch.

Shipping record: Melville's name (highlighted) was entered on the crew's list for a whaling vessel set to sail the Pacific, inspiring the tale of Moby Dick

Detail: Melville, then 21, was listed by name as a crewman for the Acushnet, which launched in January 1841

Author's voyage: Scholars have attributed many of the features of Moby Dick to Melville's first-hand experience of whaling

The parchment, featured on Slate, records a brown-haired, dark-complexioned man who was around 5ft 9in tall.

The record was signed off on New Year's Eve 1840 by Captain Valentine Pease, with the ship's destination listed only as 'The Pacific Ocean'.

Melville, whose literary career began in 1946 with the novel Typee, would spend the next four years at sea, travelling from the Atlantic to the South Pacific, stopping in Tahiti and ending up in Hawaii, then an independent kingdom.

He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a crew-member of the USS United States and was taken back to Boston in October 1844.

There she blows! Moby Dick, one of the great American novels, is pictured above in the 1956 film version

Climactic: Pictured is the moment Captain Ahab, played by Gregory Peck, takes his spear to the White Whale

Scholars have noted parallels between Moby Dick, Melville's most famous novel, and his own experiences at sea.

As well as the fact that the journey gave him first-hand experience of hunting whales over the open waters, some of his destinations have been seen as inspirations for characters in the book.

In the course of his journey he lived among natives on the island of Nukahiva in the South Pacific - to which has been attributed his sympathetic portrayal of Queequeg, a Polynesian harpoonist who joins Ahab in taking on the legendary White Whale.

Fantastical: Moby Dick - pictured in a 1999 British cartoon version - was obscure until after Melville's death

The hardships of the seas would also have been foremost in Melville's mind on his long journey - conditions on the Acushnet were severe enough that he deserted 18 months into the proposed four-year journey.

His writing career drew heavily on sea-going themes - his first novel, Typee, was an account of living with the Polynesian natives, and proved so popular in his lifetime that it demanded a sequel, Omoo.