Other editions of book Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea

Tracing an awe-inspiring ocean journey from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and an eloquent, insightful account of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. This is American literature and American history at its very best. The appendix, "Twenty-Four Years After," recounts his visit to California after the Gold Rush, where he revisited some of the sites mentioned in the book as well as seeing several old friends including some that had also been mentioned.

"Two Years Before the Mast" is the story of Richard Henry Dana Jr., a young Harvard student, who leaves school to go on a sea voyage to improve his health. Dana shipped out of Boston on the brig Pilgrim bound for California to bring back cow hides, presumably for the leather industry around Boston. "Two Years Before the Mast" is a graphic, sometimes chilling, picture of what life was like for seamen on a merchant ship in the 1800s. They were no better than slaves, with life and death being subject to the whims of the captain. Their pay was small and sometimes they were forced to spend it in what amounted to a company store. It was possible to go on a two year voyage and wind up owing the shipping company money. The condition under which this labor was performed stretches the imagination. "Two Years Before the Mast also provides fascinating information on pre-gold rush California history and Mexican Alta California, as well as the Sandwich Islanders (Hawaiians). All in all, "Two Years Before the Mast" is one of the most vivid accounts of the relationship between man and sea-and still rings true as a portrayal of man's endurance.

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - Brand New and Complete Authors Edition - Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. ‘In the winter of 1879-80 I sailed round Cape Horn in a full-rigged ship from New York to California. At the latter place I visited the scenes of ``Two Years Before the Mast.'' At the old town of San Diego I met Jack Stewart, my father's old shipmate, and as we were looking at the dreary landscape and the forlorn adobe houses and talking of California of the thirties, he burst out into an encomium of the accuracy and fidelity to details of my father's book. He said, ``I have read it again and again. It all comes back to me, everything just as it happened. The seamanship is perfect.'' And then as if to emphasize it all, with the exception that proves the rule, he detailed one slight case where he thought my father was at fault,—-a detail so slight that I now forget what it is. In reading the Log kept by the discharged mate, Amerzeen, on the return trip in the Alert, I find that every incident there recorded, from running aground at the start at San Diego Harbor, through the perilous icebergs round the Horn, the St. Elmo's fire, the scurvy of the crew and the small matters like the painting of the vessel, to the final sail up Boston Harbor, confirms my father's record. His former shipmate, the late B. G. Stimson, a distinguished citizen of Detroit, said the account of the flogging was far from an exaggeration, and Captain Faucon of the Alert also during his lifetime frequently confirmed all that came under his observation. Such truth in the author demands truth in illustration, and I have cooperated with the publishers in securing a painting of the Alert under full sail and other illustrations, both colored and in pen and ink, faithful to the text in every detail….’

In the book, which takes place between 1834 and 1836, Dana gives a vivid account of "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is". He sails from Boston, around Cape Horn, arriving in California when it was a remote Mexican land, and San Diego, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco were not much more than a few sheds. He gives descriptions of landing at each of the ports up and down the California coast as they existed then. In the book, he makes a tellingly accurate prediction of San Francisco's future. He also gives a nice description of a society wedding amongst the "Californios." His ship was on a voyage to trade goods from the east for cow hides. Interestingly, the bluffs near Mission San Juan Capistrano presented an obstacle to taking the cow hides to the beach for subsequent loading onto the ship. So, Dana, along with others of the Pilgrim's crew, tossed the hides from the bluffs, while spinning them like a frisbee. Some hides got stuck part way down the cliff and Dana was lowered with ropes to retrieve them. Since that day, that point where the bluffs were located, took on Dana's name, and is today the city of Dana Point. Being an educated person on his ship, he learned Spanish and became an interpreter. He befriended a Kanaka (a native of modern-day Hawaii), later saving his life when his captain would as soon see him die. He spent a season in San Diego preparing hides for the journey home. On the return trip around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter he describes terrifying storms and incredible beauty, giving vivid descriptions of icebergs, and the scurvy that afflicts members of the crew. In 1869, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. added an appendix entitled "Twenty-Four Years After". This appendix recounts his visit to California after the Gold Rush.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840.While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later aboard the Alert (which left California sooner than the Pilgrim). He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and, after returning, he wrote a book based on his experiences. Recognized as an American classic, Two Years Before the Mast was published the same year that Dana was admitted to the bar.

Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana How is this book unique?Tablet and e-reader formattedOriginal & Unabridged EditionAuthor Biography includedIllustrated versionTwo Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946. The term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors — in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. His writing evidences his later sympathy with the lower classes; he later became a prominent anti-slavery activist and helped found the Free Soil Party. Dana did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840.While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later aboard the Alert (which left California sooner than the Pilgrim). He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and, after returning, he wrote a book based on his experiences. Recognized as an American classic, Two Years Before the Mast was published the same year that Dana was admitted to the bar.