Two Years Before the Mast
- ISBN-10
- 1517342678
- ISBN-13
- 9781517342678
- Series
- Two Years Before the Mast
- Pages
- 414
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-09-14
- Author
- Richard H. Dana
Description
Two Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana, written after a two-year sea voyage. In the book, which takes place between 1834 and 1836, Dana gives a vivid account of "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is". He sails from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California.[1] Dana's ship was on a voyage to trade goods from the United States for the Mexican colonial Californian California missions' and ranchos' cow hides. They traded at the ports in San Diego Bay, San Pedro Bay, Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. The term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors - in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. His writing evidences his later sympathy with the lower classes; he later became a prominent anti-slavery activist and helped found the Free Soil Party. Dana did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.
