TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST

TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST                                     $15.00

By Richard Henry Dana Jr. 397 pages
A classic telling of his two year journey at sea from Boston, around Cape Horn, up along the California coast starting in 1834.

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. Dana 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. He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and, after returning, he wrote this classic. The term “before the mast” refers to the quarters of the common sailors, in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. This ‘complete’ version contains maps of his voyages, an introduction, notes written 24 and 76 years after the voyage, and diagrams of sailing ships.