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Two Years Before the Mast a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. Richard Henry Dana Jr. ...
Sunset at sea Wiktionary has a definition of: Sea Wiktionary has a definition of: maritime A sea is a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, or a large, usually saline, lake that lacks a natural outlet such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea. ...
1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
Richard Henry Dana's story While at Harvard College Dana had an attack of the measles which affected his sight. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a grand tour of Europe (and unable to afford it anyway) and being something of a non-conformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn, on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later. Today Harvard College is the undergraduate portion of Harvard University. ...
World map showing location of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...
Cape Horn is often said to be the southernmost point of South America. ...
In sailing, a brig is a vessel with two masts at least one of which is square rigged. ...
State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Official languages English Area 27,360 km² (44th) - Land 20,317 km² - Water 7,043 km² (25. ...
He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and after returning he wrote a recognized American classic, Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1841. A diary is a book for writing discrete entries arranged by date. ...
1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
A sailor's story The term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors -- in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. His writing evidences his later social feeling for the oppressed; he later became a prominent anti-slavery activist and helped found the Free Soil Party. forecastle with figurehead Grand Turk Forecastle also spelled focsle (pronounced ) originally meant the upper deck of a sailing ship, forward of the foremast. ...
A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Look up Slavery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Slavery is a condition of control over a person against their will, enforced by violence or other forms of coercion. ...
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States organized in 1848 that petered out by about 1852. ...
It is of note that he did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.
The journey In the book, he gives a vivid account of the life of a common sailor as of 1834. He sails from Boston, around Cape Horn, arriving in California when it was a remote Mexican land, and San Diego, San Pedro, Los Angeles, and San Francisco weren't much more than a few sheds. He gives descriptions of landing at each of the ports up and down the California coast as they existed then. In the book, he makes a tellingly accurate prediction of San Francisco's future. He also gives a nice description of a society wedding amongst the "Californios". Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ...
State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...
San Diego County in the Southwest corner of California. ...
San Pedro is the Spanish form of Saint Peter. ...
This article is about the largest city in California. ...
This article is about the city in California. ...
His ship was on a journey to trade goods from the east for cow hides. Since he was the educated person on his ship, he learned Spanish and became an interpreter. He befriended a Kanaka (a native of modern-day Hawaii), later saving his life when his racist captain would as soon see him die. He spent a season in San Diego preparing hides for the journey home. Haole, in the Hawaiian language, means foreign or foreigner; it can be used in reference to people, plants, and animals. ...
State nickname: The Aloha State Other U.S. States Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Governor Linda Lingle (R) Official languages Hawaiian and English Area 28,337 km² (43rd) - Land 16,649 km² - Water 11,672 km² (41. ...
An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ...
On the return trip around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter he describes terrifying storms and incredible beauty, giving vivid descriptions of icebergs, and the scurvy that infects members of the crew. World map showing location of Antarctica A satellite composite image of Antarctica For the Kim Stanley Robinson novel see Antarctica (novel) Antarctica (from Greek ἀνταÏκτικός, opposite the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earths South Pole. ...
An iceberg (berg is the German word for mountain) is a large piece of ice that has broken off from a glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. ...
Scurvy is a disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C and leads to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums and bleeding from almost all mucous membranes. ...
One of the few books about California When the California Gold Rush of 1849 happened, his book was one of the few books in existence that described California. After the Gold Rush, he re-visited California, commenting on the drastic changes and seeing several old friends. Gold rush handbill The California Gold Rush was a period in American history marked by mass hysteria concerning a gold discovery in Northern California. ...
1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
- Yet a sailor’s life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous.
- — from Two Years Before the Mast, Chapter VI
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