Richard Henry Dana

Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s "Two Years Before the Mast" is an engaging account of his transforming journey as a common sailor aboard a commerce vessel in the early nineteenth century. Dana powerfully depicts the harsh reality of life at sea, from severe storms to challenging labor, set against the backdrop of the magnificent Pacific coastline and the bustling ports of California. Dana's insightful findings and thoughtful insights provide a captivating glimpse into sailors' daily challenges and companionship, as well as the varied cultures they meet on their travels. A timeless masterpiece of maritime literature, "Two Years Before the Mast" immerses readers in an immersive experience of adventure, perseverance, and the eternal spirit of exploration.

"Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana Jr. is a gripping memoir that chronicles the author's adventurous two-year sea voyage from Boston to California aboard a merchant ship in the mid-1830s. This classic work, first published in 1840, offers a vivid, unvarnished glimpse into the life of a common sailor during a bygone era. Dana's journey takes him from the harsh winters of Cape Horn to the bustling ports of Alta California, then a province of Mexico. His narrative is rich with details about the challenging conditions at sea, the intricate hide trade in California, and the diverse cultures he encounters. The memoir stands out for its authentic portrayal of maritime life, highlighting the struggles and triumphs of sailors, as well as the natural beauty and peril of the sea. Dana's experiences are both educational and deeply personal, offering a unique perspective on early American maritime history. His work not only captures the spirit of adventure but also served as a critical commentary on the social and working conditions of sailors, making it a timeless piece of American literature.

A true story of the battered life of a foremast crewman, Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana’s classic travel narrative, which inspired canonical works such as Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As Rod Scher follows Dana (the Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America, he annotates Dana’s tale with critiques, compliments, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Dana’s time.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

Reproduction of the original: To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Jr Dana

Reproduction of the original: To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Jr Dana

Two Years Before The Mast: A Personal Narrative With A Supplement By The Author And Introduction And Additional Chapter By His Son, Richard Henry Dana This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING

First published in 1840, "Two Years Before the Mast" is the true story of Richard Henry Dana's voyage aboard the merchant vessel the "Pilgrim" on a trip around Cape Horn during the years 1834 to 1836. Dana was a student at Harvard when a case of the measles affected his vision. He left school and enlisted as a sailor on a merchant vessel, believing that the experience might help his eyesight. Dana kept a diary during his adventures and he intended his account to be "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is". He details the trip from Boston, around South Africa and to San Francisco to trade goods from the United States for cow hides from Mexican colonial missions and ranchos. "Two Years Before the Mast" depicts maritime life in the 19th century as it truly was; brutal, harsh, dangerous, and sometimes incredibly beautiful. Dana's account also includes a fascinating description of California before the Gold Rush. Included in this edition is the appendix, "Twenty-Four Years After", added by the author in 1869, which depicts his return trip to California in 1859 and the immense changes he witnessed to the area from statehood, the Gold Rush, and growing prosperity. Also included in this edition is an afterword by his son entitled "Seventy-Six Years After". This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

The steamer is to sail at one P. M.; and, by half-past twelve, her decks are full, and the mud and snow of the pier are well trodden by men and horses. Coaches drive down furiously, and nervous passengers put their heads out to see if the steamer is off before her time; and on the decks, and in the gangways, inexperienced passengers run against everybody, and mistake the engineer for the steward, and come up the same stairs they go down, without knowing it. In the dreary snow, the newspaper vendors cry the papers, and the book vendors thrust yellow covers into your face-"Reading for the voyage, sir-five hundred pages, close print " And that being rejected, they reverse the process of the Sibyl-with "Here's another, sir, one thousand pages, double columns." The great beam of the engine moves slowly up and down, and the black hull sways at its fasts. A motley group are the passengers. Shivering Cubans, exotics that have taken slight root in the hothouses of the Fifth Avenue, are to brave a few days of sleet and cold at sea, for the palm trees and mangoes, the cocoas and orange trees, they will be sitting under in six days, at farthest. There are Yankee shipmasters going out to join their "cotton wagons" at New Orleans and Mobile, merchants pursuing a commerce that knows no rest and no locality; confirmed invalids advised to go to Cuba to die under mosquito nets and be buried in a Potter's Field; and other invalids wisely enough avoiding our March winds; and here and there a mere vacationmaker, like myself.