Two Years Before the Mast

London England: SIGNET CLASSICS. This book is a must for every boy - or girl! - who loves the sea, and its tales of hardship and adventure. Here is a sea story with a difference since every word of it is true and recounts the author's own personal experiences during the two arduous and adventures years, from 1834 to 1836, when he shipped before the mast as an able seaman. The author wrote this book as a protest against the hardships and cruelties endured by American sailors in the middle of the nineteenth century. But even to-day, when these terrible conditions no longer exist, people still love to read this classic of the sTracing 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." . Very Good. Soft cover. First Edition. 1966.