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Book/Printed Material Two years before the mast; a personal narrative,

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Title

  • Two years before the mast; a personal narrative,

Summary

  • Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) of Boston left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels. Two years before the mast (1911) is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European. The edition of the book reproduced here includes the chapter "Twenty-four Years After" prepared by Dana to accompany the "author's" edition published in 1869 as well as his son's "Seventy-six Years After," an appendix prepared in 1911.

Names

  • Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 1815-1882

Created / Published

  • Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company, 1911.

Headings

  • -  Voyages and travels
  • -  Seafaring life

Notes

  • -  Maps on end-papers.

Medium

  • xiii, 533, [1] p. col. front., illus., col. plates, port., double facsim. 22 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • G540 .D2 1911b
  • G540 .D2 1911c Another issue. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company [1911] xiii, 553, [1] p. col front., illus., col. plates, port., double facsim. 21 cm. Maps on end-papers.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 11035887

Rights Advisory

  • No known restrictions on publication.

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

"California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900.

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Credit Line: Library of Congress, [appropriate source division as described in the bibliographic record]. For example: Library of Congress, General Collections; or, Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years Before the Mast; a Personal Narrative. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company, 1911. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/11035887/.

APA citation style:

Dana, R. H. (1911) Two Years Before the Mast; a Personal Narrative. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/11035887/.

MLA citation style:

Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years Before the Mast; a Personal Narrative. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company, 1911. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/11035887/>.