Two Years Before the Mast
An overlooked account of life at sea in a journey from Massachusetts to California, before California was a state. Fascinating story of early California, but it takes time to get through the nautical terms in the story.
Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea
by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
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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.
While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles, which 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 non-conformist, 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 recognized American classic, Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, the same year of his admission to the bar. (less)
After reading this, I asked myself, why wasn't this taught in history when I went to school in California.
