Two Years Before the Mast

Richard Henry Dana left the privileged life of a Cambridge University scholar to see the world as a sailor aboard an American merchant vessel. From his experiences, he wrote this book to tell the truth about sailing from Boston to California - the hard way, around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. His story was just one chapter in an incredible life, but what a chapter: visiting the missions of California long before the Gold Rush, losing sailors overboard, putting up with the arrogance of officers, surviving the punishments meted out by a maniacal captain, and surviving the terrors of Cape Horn. The book is also full of details of life aboard ship in the early 19th century: the rituals, songs, and tasks that filled a sailor's life. Two Years Before the Mast was praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson as: 'a voice from the forecastle. Though a narrative of literal, prosaic truth, it possesses something of the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe. Few more interesting chapters of the literature of the sea have ever fallen under our notice.' This New Albion Press edition includes diagrams of ship rigging and sails, as well as a map of the voyage. The book can be annotated, searched, and highlighted by the reader.