Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s memoir of a common sailor's merchant voyage from Boston to California in the 1830s. It describes the hard routines, hierarchy and hazards aboard a sailing ship and offers a rare view of Mexican California. Worth hearing for its plain, vivid prose and historical detail.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea By Richard Henry Dana, Jr. With an introduction and notes by Homer Eaton Keyes, B.L. Assistant Professor of Art in Dartmouth College ——Crowded in the rank and narrow ship,— Housed on the wild sea with wild usages,— Whate'er in the inland dales the land conceals Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing, Do we behold of that in our rude voyage. Coleridge's Wallenstein. CONTENTS Introduction Biographical Note California and her Missions
Bibliographical References Diagram of Ships Explanation of Diagram Two Years Before the Mast Twenty-Four Years After INTRODUCTION Biographical Note Two years before the mast were 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 other than literary fields occupied the greater part of his life, but they brought him comparatively small recognition and many disappointments. His happiest associations were literary, his pleasantest acquaintanceships those which arose through his fame as the author of one book. The story of his life is one of honest and competent effort, of sincere purpose, of many thwarted hopes. The traditions of his family forced him into a profession for which he was intellectually but not temperamentally fitted: he should have been a scholar, teacher, and author; instead he became a lawyer. Born in Cambridge, Mass., August 1, 1815, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., came of a line of Colonial ancestors whose legal understanding and patriotic zeal had won them distinction. His father, if possessed of less vigor than his predecessors, was yet a man of culture and ability. He was widely known as poet, critic, and lecturer; and endowed his son with native qualities of intelligence, good breeding, and honesty. After somewhat varied and troublous school days, young
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