Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

This amazing book is a chronicle of a sailor's life beginning in 1834, sailing out of Boston, around South America, and ending up in California. What's amazing is that it's true, is beautifully written, and gives a clear and disturbing look at the life of a sailor during that time. The edition I bought (from Amazon) includes two updates; one from 24 years and one from 76 years after the initial voyage. What's fascinating about the updates is that it gives further color to the author and his life, as well as a look at how the cities in California were developing.

One problem I had was that this edition's print was TINY. It was tough going to read. But the story was so fascinating, I read slowly and carefully, despite this problem. Another problem was the detailed description Dana gives of his sailing. Most of this vocabulary is lost on me, and while I wished I knew what was going on, there was too much obscure vocabulary and verbiage to look up without a serious study of the whole topic. Maybe someday? In the meantime, I tried to guess from context clues what was going on. Most often, Dana would be up on some rigging high above the ship and tying or ??? doing something or other with the sails. For someone with more knowledge, this would probably be enlightening, especially when compared to how ships are sailed nowadays.

I really enjoyed reading about the sailors' clothes, their food, their pastimes, what they talked about to pass the time, their struggles, the line between the officers and the sailors, and life in California under Mexico. These ships were hauling hides from California back to Boston, so the methods of curing the hides and loading them was also described in fascinating detail.

Here's an interesting passage describing how Dana passed his time on deck: (from page 153)

"I commenced a deliberate system of time-killing, which united some profit with a cheering up of the heavy hours. As soon as I came on deck, and took my place and regular walk, I began with repeating over to myself in regular order a string of matters which I had in my memory,--the multiplication table and the tables of weights and meaures; the Kanaka numerals; then the States of the Union with their capitals; the counties of England, with their shire towns, and the kings of England in their order, and other things. This carried me through my facts, and, being repeated deliberately, with long intervals, often eked out the first two bells. Then came the Ten Commandments, the thirty-ninth chapter of Job, and a few other passages from Scripture. The next in the order, which I seldom varied from, came Cowper's Castaway, which was a great favorite with me; its solemn measure and gloomy character, as well as the incident it was founded upon, making it well suited to a lonely watch at sea. Then his lines to Mary, his address to the Jackdaw, and a short extract from Table talk (I abounded in Cowper), for I happened to have a volume of his poems in my chest); "Ille et nefasto" from Horace, and Goethe's Erl Koenig. After I had got through these, I allowed myself a more general range among everything that I could remember, both in prose and verse. In this way, with an occasional break by relieving at the wheel, heaving the log, and going to the scuttle-butt for a drink of water, the longest watch was passed away; and I was so regular in my silent recitations that, if there was no interruption by ship's duty, I could tell very nearly the number of bells by my progress."

I love that description and often wonder how long I would last on such a journey without losing my mind! The hardships he endured and the frequent dangers are humbling to read about. Always cold, often hungry, NO creature comforts, and often cruel treatment and even flogging by the captain were part of the life of these sailors. This is a magnificent history and made me want to learn more about this time and this life.

This book was recommended to me by my brilliant friend Sally Palmer. When I told her I had trouble with the sailing parts, she was surprised. She had no trouble figuring out and picturing what was going on by the context.

Earlier in the book, Dana describes his joy at reading Mandeville, a Romance, by Godwin. It was a pure delight to him, since books were so rare on board and he savored this one. I'm planning to send this copy to my dad. I think he will really enjoy it, if he can be patient with the small font!