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Loading... Two Years Before the Mast, A Personal Narrative of Life at Seaby Richard Henry Dana
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. WRitten in 1840s and beyond, this factual narrative is sophisticated in detail in every area: seaman's culture, characters, weather, hard hard hard conditions and work, techniques required, amazing feats of strength and endurance. In addition, his personal feelings as he views natural phenomena and human spirit are deeply moving. (  ) nggray | Nov 23, 2009 |  I used to live near Dana Point, California so enjoyed reading about its early days and Richard Henry Dana's time there skinning hides. Interesting narrative of a student's year off from his studies at Harvard -- two years sailing to California and back. Dana was an educated man of privilege who wrote about the hard life of the sailor. For the most part he was one of the men, but given that his family had connections to the owners, and that he planned to only live this life temporarily, his lot was not quite as hard as the others', but he tried as much as possible to pull his weight and be one of the ordinary sailors. OwlCat | Aug 3, 2009 | I read this aloud to my children when we were studying California history. It is a fascinating story written as a memoir of a young man who went to sea as a way to cure his weak eyes! It was a rough wake-up call for him, but he became a man and his eyes improved. He details life aboard a sailing ship in the 1800s. His description of the trip around the Horn is harrowing. I don't know how anyone survived, let alone did it more than once. Very interesting chapters on buying hides of beef in California, visiting the Missions and the Ranchos. (  ) MrsLee | Mar 4, 2009 | A journey from Boston around South America, then traveling the west coast of California before it was part of America - they were buying hides and selling goods. #14 on the National Geographic Adventure list of “The 100 greatest adventure books of all time” I read it aloud some years ago with my son when he was in 7th grade. Well written, though sometimes we got stuck in the description of the rigging - our copy would have benefited from a diagram of the ship's rigging. Since we were living in California it was very interesting to read about the early history of Los Angeles and other coastal cities. ( ) TizzzieLish | Sep 26, 2008 | Excellent book. Even though written several generations ago, the prose was fresh and easy to read. Wonderful desciption of life at sea during the time of sailing merchant vessels without being overdone with flowery language. ( ) need2sleep | Sep 26, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:05 -0400)
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