Nonfiction · 1840
Two Years Before the Mast
In 1834 a Harvard undergraduate with failing eyesight shipped out of Boston as a common sailor rather than as a passenger, and kept a record of it. The brig Pilgrim took him round Cape Horn to a California that was still Mexican and almost empty, where the work was hide-droghing: curing cattle hides on the beach at San Diego, carrying them on his head through the surf, loading them at San Pedro and Santa Barbara and Monterey for two years before a full ship let him home. The book is exact about the labour, the food and the watches, and unsparing about a captain who could flog a man for asking why another was being flogged.
Richard Henry Dana published Two Years Before the Mast in 1840, partly to describe the seaman's life from below decks rather than from the quarterdeck; he became a maritime lawyer and spent much of his career acting for sailors. The book is also the fullest eyewitness account of coastal California in the years just before the American conquest and the gold rush.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Preface
- Chapter I — Departure
- Chapter II — First Impressions—“Sail Ho!”
- Chapter III — Ship’s Duties—Tropics
- Chapter IV — A Rogue—Trouble on Board—“Land Ho!”—Pompero—Cape Horn
- Chapter V — Cape Horn—A Visit
- Chapter VI — Loss of a Man—Superstition
- Chapter VII — Juan Fernandez—The Pacific
- Chapter VIII — “Tarring Down”—Daily Life—“Going Aft”—California
- Chapter IX — California—A South-Easter
- Chapter X — A South-Easter—Passage Up the Coast
- Chapter XI — Passage Up the Coast—Monterey
- Chapter XII — Life at Monterey
- Chapter XIII — Trading—A British Sailor
- Chapter XIV — Santa Barbara—Hide-Droghing—Harbor Duties—Discontent—San Pedro
- Chapter XV — A Flogging—A Night on Shore—The State of Things on Board—San Diego
- Chapter XVI — Liberty-Day on Shore
- Chapter XVII — San Diego—A Desertion—San Pedro Again—Beating the Coast
- Chapter XVIII — Easter Sunday—“Sail Ho!”—Whales—San Juan—Romance of Hide-Droghing—San Diego Again
- Chapter XIX — The Sandwich Islanders—Hide-Curing—Wood-Cutting—Rattle- Snakes—New-Comers
- Chapter XX — Leisure—News from Home—“Burning the Water”
- Chapter XXI — California and Its Inhabitants
- Chapter XXII — Life on Shore—The Alert
- Chapter XXIII — New Ship and Shipmates—My Watchmate
- Chapter XXIV — San Diego Again—A Descent—Hurried Departure—A New Shipmate
- Chapter XXV — Rumors of War—A Spouter—Slipping for a South-Easter—A Gale
- Chapter XXVI — San Francisco—Monterey
- Chapter XXVII — The Sunday Wash-Up—On Shore—A Set-to—A Grandee—“Sail Ho!”—A Fandango
- Chapter XXVIII — An Old Friend—A Victim—California Rangers—News from Home—Last Looks
- Chapter XXIX — Loading for Home—A Surprise—Last of an Old Friend—The Last Hide—A Hard Case—Up Anchor, for Home!—Homeward Bound
- Chapter XXX — Beginning the Long Return Voyage—A Scare
- Chapter XXXI — Bad Prospects—First Touch of Cape Horn—Icebergs—Temperance Ships—Lying-Up—Ice—Difficulty on Board—Change of Course—Straits of Magellan
- Chapter XXXII — Ice Again—A Beautiful Afternoon—Cape Horn—“Land Ho!”—Heading for Home
- Chapter XXXIII — Cracking on—Progress Homeward—A Pleasant Sunday—A Fine Sight—By-Play
- Chapter XXXIV — Narrow Escapes—The Equator—Tropical Squalls—A Thunder Storm
- Chapter XXXV — A Double-Reef-Top-Sail Breeze—Scurvy—A Friend in Need—Preparing for Port—The Gulf Stream
- Chapter XXXVI — Soundings—Sights from Home—Boston Harbor—Leaving the Ship
- Twenty — Four Years After
New editions
Never lose your place.
This book is free to read in full, and stays that way. Leave an address: one click confirms it and opens a free account, so your progress and bookmarks sync across every device. You'll also hear when the next restored edition enters the archive. Terminate at any time.
About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Source mind
About the author
Adjacent records
