July 9, 1842, Herman Melville and his ship-mate, (Dublin born) Richard Tobias Greene jumped ship at Nukahiva Bay in the Marquesas Islands and ventured into the mountains to avoid capture. Melville's first book, Typee (1845), is loosely based on his stay in or near the Taipi Valley. Two years after the novel's publication, many of the events described therein were corroborated by Richard Tobias "Toby" Greene