Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

Indiana's journal page for July 18, 1961, includes a sketch of Melville. He records that he had commenced the painting, and cites chapter 120 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, "The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch." Indiana incorporated text from this chapter into the work.

A note added at a later date indicates that the painting was acquired by Walter Netsch.