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Title: Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea by Richard Henry Dana, Thomas Philbrick ISBN: 0-14-039008-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (33 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: CALIFORNIA HISTORY HAS NEVER BEEN SO FUN !
Comment: Just finished reading this book today and thought that it was really good. Myself, being from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was thrilled to hear Dana describe areas that I am well familiar with. The book was a history lesson for me of early California. My book, the Penguin Classic edition, had an extra chapter at the end written by Dana called "Twenty-four Years After". In this chapter he returns to California 24 yrs later and writes about all the changes that have occurred since he was last there, a lot due to the fact of the gold rush. He also goes into some detail on the whereabouts of his former crewmates and the two ships that he sailed on while on his adventure. I have to say that this book probably would have more appeal to someone who is familiar with California as I am. I'm not sure if the book centered on Oregon lets say, that I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. I picked this book up at a second-hand store and am glad I decided to give it a try. I would suggest the same for anyone else that may have an interest in how it was to work and live on ships in the 1800's and early California before statehood.
Rating: 5
Summary: Underrated classic
Comment: After finishing this book, I am amazed that this book is not more prominent in famous literature. Much of US and Sailing history can be learned through this true firsthand account of a Harvard student gone temporary salty dog. I am not from California or even the west coast but still found the stories contained throughout the book fascinating. Dana did an excellent job of describing the life at sea in the early 1800's without a moment of boring reading. I would recommend (and have been recommending) this book to anyone and everyone.
Rating: 3
Summary: Dana: Pioneer of the "Year Off"...
Comment: I read this book after reading about it in Kevin Starr's excellent history of California: California and the American Dream as well as reading about it in the foreword to Herman Melville's "White Jacket".
White Jacket was, of course, at least partially inspired by this book, and after reading "Two Years" I can certainly see the influence reflected in Dana's work.
This book has, essentially, two scenes that are varied throughout the book. The first scene is "life on board the 19th century clipper ship". Examples include: The tyranny of the captain (most notably), travelling around the cape, the daily routine (monotony of), encountering other ships, talking to the other sailors, the daily routine (complaining about), and so forth. As far as I'm concerned, Dana handles this subject just about as well as anybody COULD handle this subject. I would be lying if I said I understood all of the sailing vocabularly (how many sails did they have on those clipper ships? To me, it sounded like about a thousand or so!). None the less, life on a ship is life on a ship.
The second scene is Dana's interaction with the California coast. Were this book merely a description of life at sea, I probably would not have read it. According to Starr, this book was the ONLY English language book written about California at the time of the gold rush of 1848, and so it plays a prominent (though largely forgotten(?)) part in the shaping of the image of California in the minds of Americans (and if you want to see where I'm cribbing this from see the Starr book pgs. 38-47 thereabouts).
When Dana sails into San Francisco at the time of this book, there was one (1!) house in the entire Bay Area. That's impressive. We also get first hand descriptions of Santa Barbara and San Diego (where I live), that are unique. Dana treats the residents of California as one might expect from a wealthy white dude from the east coast of the U.S.: The Mexicans/Spanish are "noble" but "lazy" and the indians are nearly beneath mention. Dana is quick to see the potential in California but equally as quick to dismiss the current residents as hopelessly lazy. At one point Dana refers to the "California Disease"(laziness). By the end of his time on the coast, he is calling California "Hell". That probably has more to do with his daily work (processing hides) then California itself.
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Title: Sailing Alone Around the World (Penguin Classics) by Joshua Slocum, Thomas Fogarty, George Varian, Thomas Philbrick, Tom Philbin ISBN: 0140437363 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Making of a Sailor / or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger by Frederick Pease Harlow ISBN: 0486256138 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 April, 1988 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Two Years Before the Mast: And Twenty-Four Years After by Richard Henry Dana ISBN: 1589761022 Publisher: The Narrative Press, Inc. Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Seamans Friend : A Treatise on Practical Seamanship by Richard Henry Dana Jr. ISBN: 048629918X Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 26 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Godforsaken Sea : The True Story of a Race Through the World's Most Dangerous Waters by Derek Lundy ISBN: 0385720009 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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