How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana Two Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.