Captain John D'Wolf II (1779-1872), member of a prominent slave-trading family of Bristol, Rhode Island, was the uncle of author Herman Melville (1819-1891). D'Wolf informed Melville's view of life at sea: he appears in "Moby Dick" (1851) as an experienced ship captain.
In his twenties, D'Wolf was the first United States citizen to cross Siberia. In his eighties, he wrote a fabulous book called A voyage to the North Pacific and a journey through Siberia more than half a century ago (1861). Melville is not mentioned in the text; Melville's biography says that D'Wolf made him a gift of a copy, supposedly one of an edition of only one hundred.
I wonder if an ancient ship captain could write a first-class travelogue like this without the support of a professional author. Did Melville help D'Wolf with his book?