Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and the most eloquent, insightful account we have of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he abandons the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors, amid genuine danger. The result is an astonishing read, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain, terrible hardship and magical beauty, and fascinating historical detail, including an intriguing portrait of California before the gold rush. As D. H. Lawrence proclaimed, "Dana's small book is a very great book."

Two Years Before the Mast was praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson as: "a voice from the forecastle. Though a narrative of literal, prosaic truth, it possesses something of the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe. Few more interesting chapters of the literature of the sea have ever fallen under our notice."

A book even a landlubber like me could love! Before the Mast is a name most of us have heard. I just assumed it was a novel until I read it on suggestion of one of the guides at Mystic Seaport during a recent visit. Dana was a brave 19 year old fellow to sign up voluntarily as a common sailor living before the mast on a hazardous trip from Boston to California around The Cape near Antartica. His account of the trip is justifiably enduring for many reasons including the description of pre gold rush unpopulated California still under Spanish rule. There's even a Cpt. Bligh-like character to be feared. Speed read the parts describing all the sails unless that's your thing!

This is another book that I read aloud to my wife as we set about on our own adventure of "Hobo-ing America" in our little Chevy van.
I was thrilled by the fact that they brought their hides from California to the little tanning and leather processing community of Lowell, Massachusetts. I was raised in Lawrence - just down the road.
I picked up this book because it was a travel adventure about sailing around the world. I didn't know at the time that it was a Classic and that it had changed the life and working conditions for seaman at that time. My dad was also a seamen - at a much later date though. He served as a merchant marine during WWII. My wife and I were harboring the fantasy that after we finished our tour of the USA we might then sail "around the world".
We didn't.
This was a truly great adventure story and it is a true account - not a dramatized rendition. It was dramatic enough as fact. I loved it.
Mr. Dana being the son of a wealthy business man brought a truly conservative approach to the viewing of a sailors life.
William Z. Foster who also gives an account of life aboard commercial wind sailed vessels presents a much harsher view in his book "Pages from a Worker's Life". His account written several decades later also questions the exaggerated conservative notion that "improvements" were actually sustained or made in earnest for the sailors.

If you like adventure and thrill, then Two Years Before the Mast is the book for you. Some parts of this book we will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

In Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana went on a ship that was going around the tip of South Americia. From storms in the Atlantic to icebergs in the Pacifac. They were going to California to trade. It was very hard on the sailors.

This book is mostly about adventure an hardships. Richard Henry Dana went on this boat because his eyes hurt because he was reading too much. He took a break but he did not know what lie ahead of him.

I would highly recommend this book because it is very exciting and thrilling. I would recommend thi book to readers that love excitement.