TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea
By
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
With an introduction and notes by
Homer Eaton Keyes, B.L.
Assistant Professor of Art in Dartmouth College
——Crowded in the rank and narrow ship,—
Housed on the wild sea with wild usages,—
Whate'er in the inland dales the land conceals
Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing,
Do we behold of that in our rude voyage.
Coleridge's Wallenstein.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Biographical Note
California and her Missions
Bibliographical References
Diagram of Ships
Explanation of Diagram
Two Years Before the Mast
Twenty-Four Years After
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
Two years before the mast were but an episode in the life of RichardHenry Dana, Jr.; yet the narrative in which he details the experiencesof that period is, perhaps, his chief claim to a wide remembrance. Hisservices in other than literary fields occupied the greater part of hislife, but they brought him comparatively small recognition and manydisappointments. His happiest associations were literary, hispleasantest acquaintanceships those which arose through his fame as theauthor of one book. The story of his life is one of honest andcompetent effort, of sincere purpose, of many thwarted hopes. Thetraditions of his family forced him into a profession for which he wasintellectually but not temperamentally fitted: he should have been ascholar, teacher, and author; instead he became a lawyer.
Born in Cambridge, Mass., August 1, 1815, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., cameof a line of Colonial ancestors whose legal understanding and patrioticzeal had won them distinction. His father, if possessed of less vigorthan his predecessors, was yet a man of culture and ability. He waswidely known as poet, critic, and lecturer; and endowed his son withnative qualities of intelligence, good breeding, and honesty.
After somewhat varied and troublous school days, young Dana enteredHarvard University, where he took high rank in his classes and bid fairto make a reputation as a scholar. But at the beginning of his thirdyear of college a severe attack of measles interrupted his course, andso affected his eyes as to preclude, for a time at least, all idea ofstudy. The state of the family finances was not such as to permit offoreign travel in search of health. Accordingly, prompted by necessityand by a youthful love of adventure, he shipped as a common sailor inthe brig, Pilgrim, bound for the California coast. His term of servicelasted a trifle over two years—from August, 1834, to September, 1836.The undertaking was one calculated to kill or cure. Fortunately it hadthe latter ef