On December 27 the "Acushnet" sighted Cape Blanco, off Ecuador, Point St. Elena was sighted the next day, and on January 6, 1842, the ship approached the Galápagos Islands from the southeast. From February 13 to 7 May, seven sightings of sperm whales were recorded but none killed. From early May to early June, the "Acushnet" cooperatively set about its whaling endeavors several times with the "Columbus" of New Bedford, which also took letters from Melville's ship; the two ships were in the same area just south of the Equator. On June 16 she carried 750 barrels, and sent home 200 on the "Herald the Second". On June 23, the "Acushnet" reached the Marquesas Islands, and anchored at Nuku Hiva. A time of some emotional turbulence for Melville ensued over the next summer months. On July 9, 1842, Melville and his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene jumped ship at Nuku Hiva Bay and ventured into the mountains to avoid capture. While Melville's first book, "Typee" (1845), is loosely based on his stay in or near the Taipi Valley, scholarly research has increasingly shown that much if not all of this account was either taken from Melville's readings or exaggerated to dramatize a contrast between idyllic native culture and Western civilization. On August 9, Melville boarded the Australian whaler "Lucy Ann", bound for Tahiti, where on arrival he took part in a mutiny and was briefly jailed in the native "Calabooza Beretanee". In October, he and crew mate John B. Troy escaped Tahiti for Eimeo. He then spent a month as beachcomber and island rover ("omoo" in Tahitian), eventually crossing over to Moorea. He drew on these experiences for "Omoo", the sequel to "Typee". In November, he contracted to be a seaman on the Nantucket whaler "Charles & Henry" for a six-month cruise (November 1842 − April 1843), and was discharged at Lahaina, Maui in the Hawaiian Islands in May 1843. After four months of working several jobs, including as a clerk, he joined the US Navy initially as one of the crew of the frigate as an ordinary seaman on August 20. During the next year, the homeward bound ship visited the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Valparaiso, and then, from summer to fall 1844, Mazatlan, Lima, and Rio de Janeiro, before reaching Boston on October 3.