Billy Budd by Hermin Melville

Billy Budd, Sailor  is a novella by American writer Herman Melville left unfinished at Melville's
death in 1891. Acclaimed by British critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version
was finally published in 1924, it quickly took its place as a classic.

It is the end of the eighteenth century, and Billy Budd is a young sailor on a merchant ship
called the Rights-of-Man. Billy is a beautiful young man, a specimen of what Melville calls the
Handsome Sailor. He is young, simple, innocent; a foundling with no real family, and his
charm and good nature put the men around him at ease. The narrator tells us of Billy's one
serious weakness: when seized by strong emotion, he stutters.
The time is one of dread for the British Empire: from the continent, Napoleon's ambitions and
France's revolutionary fervor menace the world. The navy is extremely short-handed, and
recent mutinies have threatened the force that is the foundation of Britain's prosperity and
defense. The navy continues to depend on impressments, or forced conscriptions, to fill its
rosters.

Billy's merchant ship is boarded by the H.M.S. Bellipotent, but the boarding
officer, Lieutenant Ratcliffe, chooses only Billy for impressments. Even so, Captain
Graveling protests: Billy, he says, is the ship's peacemaker. By his mere beauty and
goodness he puts the men into good spirits. Nonetheless, Billy and his captain have no
choice, and Billy is set on his way. As he leaves, he cries out with unknowing prophecy, "And
goodbye to you too, old Rights-of-Man" (297).
Life aboard the new ship agrees with Billy. He becomes a foretop man, and loves his new
position. Though less a center of attention than he was aboard the merchant ship, Billy does
not notice the difference. He is well-liked, and makes friendships quickly. He brings smiles to
the faces of the officers and the older, weathered sailors. But he also draws the attention of
the master-at-arms, John Claggart.

Claggart becomes obsessed with Billy, despising goodness that he himself will never
possess. Through his corporals, he finds small ways of putting Billy on edge, criticizing every
slight deviation from protocol and regulation. But he himself never has anything but a kind
word for Billy. Despite the warnings of the Dansker, a wise old sailor who befriends Billy, Billy
cannot believe that Claggart harbors any ill will toward him.

One night, Billy is asked by an aft guardsman if he would help in the event of a mutiny.
Shocked to be approached in such an insidious way, Billy sends the man on his way. But
because of a youthful fear of ratting on his peers, he doesn't tell any officers of what has
happened. He tells the Dansker, who believes that Claggart is behind some kind of set-up.
But even the Dansker, who is reluctant to be involved in anything not directly concerning
himself, gives little in the way of advice to Billy.

Claggart's hatred for Billy festers. Finally, the master-at-arms goes to Captain Vere and says
that Billy is behind a mutiny plot. Not really believing Claggart, Vere has both men meet with
him in his cabin. When faced with Claggart's accusations, Billy is so overcome with emotion
that his stutter seizes him. He is completely unable to speak. Helpless, and terrified, the
simple boy defends himself the only way he knows how: he punches Claggart. But Billy
doesn't know his own strength, and Claggart is slain by the blow.

Vere, grieving for Billy in his heart, calls a drumhead court to decide Billy's case. After Billy
speaks and answers the court's questions, he leaves so that Vere can address the court.
Vere argues that the court has little real choice. A man has slain an officer. Because of the
discontent in the navy, and the large number of impressed men on the Bellipotent, anything
less than Billy's execution might result in an all-out mutiny. What's more, the provisions of the
code under which they operate are clear: a crewman has slain an officer, and that crewman
must die.

The court convicts Billy. He is hanged the next morning. Before he dies, he seems as
beautiful as a vision; none of the sailors can look away from him. Billy cries out "God bless
Captain Vere!" and the crew echoes him, as they would have echoed anything Billy said. The
light of dawn touches him, making him appear like some kind of divinity as he dies. His body,
miraculously, is untouched by any of the spasms that mark hanging deaths.

Some time afterward, Vere is fatally wounded in battle. Before he dies, he is heard
murmuring Billy Budd's name.
As for the spar from which Billy was hanged, the sailors keep track of its location. Though
they know nothing of the secret facts of Billy's case, they all instinctively know that he was
innocent. A piece of the spar, to them, is like a piece of the Cross. The novella finishes with a
song composed by one of the sailors from Billy's watch. Called "Billy in the Darbies" (Billy in
Irons), it has Billy waiting for execution and imagining being a corpse dropped down into the
sea. The final image of the book is the song's haunting final line. Billy, in chains and awaiting
death, imagines himself at the bottom of the sea. He asks for his chains to be loosened,
adding, "I am sleepy, and the oozy weeds about me twist."