<P> The final stages of composition overlapped with the early stages of publication . In June 1851, Melville wrote to Hawthorne that he was in New York to "work and slave on my' Whale' while it is driving through the press". By the end of the month, "wearied with the long delay of printers", Melville came back to finish work on the book in Pittsfield . Three weeks later, the typesetting was almost done, as he announced to Bentley on 20 July: "I am now passing thro' the press, the closing sheets of my new work". While Melville was simultaneously writing and proofreading what had been set, the corrected proof would be plated, that is, the type fixed in final form . Since earlier chapters were already plated when he was revising the later ones, Melville must have "felt restricted in the kinds of revisions that were feasible". </P> <P> On 3 July 1851, Bentley offered Melville ₤ 150 and "half profits", that is, half the profits that remained after the expenses of production and advertising . On 20 July, Melville accepted, after which Bentley drew up a contract on 13 August . Melville signed and returned the contract in early September, and then went to New York with the proof sheets, made from the finished plates, which he sent to London by his brother Allan on 10 September . For over a month, these proofs had been in Melville's possession, and because the book would be set anew in England, he could devote all his time to correcting and revising them . He still had no American publisher, so the usual hurry about getting the English publication to precede the American was not present . Only on 12 September was the Harper publishing contract signed . Bentley received the proof sheets with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them on September 24 . He published the book less than four weeks later . </P> <P> In the October 1851 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine "The Town Ho's Story" was published, with a footnote reading: "From' The Whale' . The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr. Bentley ." </P> <P> On 18 October, the English edition, The Whale, was published in a printing of only 500 copies, fewer than Melville's previous books . Their slow sales had convinced Bentley that a smaller number was more realistic . The London Morning Herald on October 20 printed the earliest known review . On 14 November, the American edition, Moby - Dick, was published and the same day reviewed in both the Albany Argus and the Morning Courier and New - York Enquirer . On 19 November, Washington received the copy to be deposited for copyright purposes . The first American printing of 2,915 copies was almost the same as the first of Mardi, but the first printing of Melville's other three Harper books had been a thousand copies more . </P>

What group composed the crew of the town-ho