Despite their scant knowledge of Finland, 19th-century Americans constructed persistent images of the Russian autonomous Grand Duchy and its people in their travel writing and fictional works. Americans, who commonly passed through Finland on their way to Russia proper, tended to stop briefly in such coastal cities as Helsinki and Turku. In their travel writing, American visitors described these same sites, often using the same vocabulary that was then repeated from one guidebook or magazine article to another. The few fictional stories, written by such well-known authors as Herman Melville or Jack London, for example, mention Finnish sailors and portray them as magical figures, who bring bad luck; yet, at the same time, they also appear as embodiments of ideal masculinity. The images 19th-century Americans constructed of Finland and Finnish people repeatedly reflected the values and beliefs Americans cherished in their own nation.