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."
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Fascinating view into life on a ship in 1830's, as well as a portrait of early California that anyone with a connection to the state would appreciate. This was my first book about sailing, not counting some Jules Verne stuff I read as a child, so I enjoyed learning about long-distance travel in the age of sail. Descriptions of life in the young coastal towns that Dana visited – San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey – were illuminating and, taking into account attitudes of the time, probably as balanced as one can expect.
