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Two Years Before the Mast / Twenty-Four Years After (1840)

by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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937422,494 (4.18)5
1909. R.H. Dana took a sea voyage and decided to go as a sailor not as a passenger. The voyage was bound from his home town of Boston to California. His experiences during those two years form the subject of this volume. Later in life he took another voyage around the world and those observations form the postscript of this book. This books value and interest today are even greater than they were when it was written for, while the purely human element remains the same, the account of the routine on board the old sailing ships, the picture of the trading on the coast of California, and the description of that country in the days before the discovery of gold had transformed its civilization, have all acquired a historical importance.… (more)
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» See also 5 mentions

Showing 4 of 4
Richard Dana, a young lawyer, takes to sea, bunking fore, among the common sailors plying the Atlantic/Pacific supply route for the industrial belt-trade, stuffing cattle-skins from the Californios into the hold of the Pilgrim. Writes memorably and accurately. ( )
  keylawk | Oct 21, 2013 |
Even now, some 200 years after Dana's ocean journey from Boston to California, this account has an immediacy that will captivate any adventure enthusiast. His description of tall ship sailing is timeless and the account of life in pre Gold Rush California is fascinating history. ( )
  TheoClarke | Jun 23, 2009 |
Wow — this is an astonishing tale! It gives an excellent description of the 19th century California coast: a sense of open, largely empty rangeland very different from my previous notions (and I had several years of schooling in California). Also good descriptions of commercial shipboard life; I had no idea merchant crews were so small. Also interesting descriptions of ethnic interactions. ( )
  drbubbles | Sep 6, 2007 |
Seumas Taylor, a master at the Ridge School listed this as a book boys should read. It took me 50 years to open it! ( )
  mnicol | Nov 21, 2017 |
Showing 4 of 4
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Eliot, Charles WilliamEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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The fourteenth of August was the day fixed upon for the sailing of the brig Pilgrim on her voyage from Boston round Cape Horn to the western coast of North America. As she was to get under weigh early in the afternoon, I made my appearance on board at twelve o’clock, in full sea-rig, and with my chest, containing an outfit for a two or three year voyage, which I had undertaken from a determination to cure, if possible, by an entire change of life, and by a long absence from books and study, a weakness of the eyes, which had obliged me to give up my pursuits, and which no medical aid seemed likely to cure.
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1909. R.H. Dana took a sea voyage and decided to go as a sailor not as a passenger. The voyage was bound from his home town of Boston to California. His experiences during those two years form the subject of this volume. Later in life he took another voyage around the world and those observations form the postscript of this book. This books value and interest today are even greater than they were when it was written for, while the purely human element remains the same, the account of the routine on board the old sailing ships, the picture of the trading on the coast of California, and the description of that country in the days before the discovery of gold had transformed its civilization, have all acquired a historical importance.

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