Richard Henry Dana (Jr.)

In 1834, Richard Dana, went from Harvard student to common seaman, sailing from California to Cape Horn. This journal survives as one of the most vivid accounts of the relationship between man and sea.

A Personal Narrative

Two Years Before the Mast

Richard Henry Dana

A Sailor's Life at Sea

Two Years before the Mast

John Nettles

Really good book. Not the most exciting of reads, but the pace helps convey the monotony and toil that is 1840s sea life on a merchant ship. The most memorable parts of this book were Dana's descriptions of (very) young California, the eclectic crew especially that Hawaiins, and the brief passage about his emotions on the trip home, one of the happiest things I've ever read. The book is more descriptive than it is plot-filled, sort of like The Journals of Lewis and Clark, which I also enjoyed.

Andrew John Kinney

This is the original American sea novel. It is quite interesting in many ways, not least with its description of California under Mexican rule, prior to the Mexican-American War. But it falls far short of Melville writings about the sea, despite having a pretty good pace in terms of story-telling.

Two Years Before the Mast A Personal Narrative

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