Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) of Boston left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels. Two years before the mast (1911) is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European.

The Seaman's Friend

by Richard Henry Dana

Published August 1974
The Seaman's Friend By Richard Henry Dana. CONTAINING A TREATISE ON PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP, WITH PLATES, A DICTIONARY OF SEA TERMS; CUSTOMS AND USAGES OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE; LAWS RELATING TO THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF MASTER AND MARINERS. BY R. H. DANA, JR., AUTHOR OF "TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST." FIFTH EDITION. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THOMAS GROOM. 1847. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, BY R. H. DANA, JR., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY GEO. A. & J. CURTIS, NEW-ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.