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Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) of Boston left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels. Two years before the mast (1911) is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European. The edition of the book reproduced here includes the chapter "Twenty-four Years After" prepared by Dana to accompany the "author's" edition published in 1869 as well as his son's "Seventy-six Years After," an appendix prepared in 1911.
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Previews available in: English
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Two years before the mast: a personal narrative of life at sea
1995, Reader's Digest Association
in English
0895776316 9780895776310
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Two years before the mast: a personal narrative of life at sea
1981, Penguin Books
in English
0140390081 9780140390087
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Two years before the mast: a personal narrative of life at sea
1946, The World publishing company
in English
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Two years before the mast: a personal narrative of life at sea
1911, The Macmillan company
in English
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Two years before the mast, Vol. 1: A personal narrative
1911, Houghton Mifflin Co.
- [Large paper ed.]
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Book Details
Edition Notes
No known restrictions on publication.
Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.
Maps on end-papers.
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Work Description
Two Years before the Mast is but an episode in the life of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., yet the narrative in which he details the experiences of that period is, perhaps, his chief claim to a wide remembrance.
His services in fields other than literary occupied the greater part of his life. Dana was a well known and respected lawyer, a stalwart abolitionist, and an advocate for the rights of common sailors. He and his wife, Sarah, had many friends among New England's cultural elite, including Henry Wadsworth and Fanny (Appleton) Longfellow and the artist Washington Allston and his wife, Martha Remington (Dana), who was Richard's aunt.
Two Years before the Mast appeared in 1840, while its author was still a law student. Though at the time it created no great stir in the United States, it was most favorably received in England, where it paved the way for many pleasant and valuable acquaintances. The following year, Dana produced The Seaman's Friend, a treatise on practical seamanship. Later, he wrote a a short account of an 1859 trip to Cuba in 1859. He was a copious letter-writer and kept journals of his travels and every day life. Yet, long before his death, he had seen the narrative of his sailor days recognized as an American classic.
Time has not diminished its reputation. We read it today not merely for its simple, unpretentious style, but for its clear picture of a life at sea previous to the era of steam navigation and for its graphic description of conditions in California before visions of gold sent the long lines of "prairie schooners" drifting across the plains to unfold the hidden destiny of the West.
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December 10, 2023 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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