The purpose of Richard Henry Dana’s book is stated outright: “If it shall […] call more attention to the welfare of seamen, or give information as to their real condition which may serve to raise them in the rank of beings […] and diminish the hardships of their daily life, the end of its publication will be answered” (Dana, 1840).  Whether or not it made a mark in the grand scheme of things may be hard to measure, though I think it does.

Two Years Before The Mast is an easy read, a page turner.  With enough adventure, through honest story telling and fluid writing, Dana captures the daily routines of an early 19^th century sailor aboard a trading vessel in Mexican California – from San Francisco to San Diego.  With two trips around Cape Horn, from Boston, Dana travels aboard the Pilgrim with a nefarious captain who would use his whip on crew for seemingly no reason at all.  On the Coast of California, Dana reports a historical record of the fur trading industry, Spanish/Mexican missions, and maritime traffic, all before the eras of massive commercialization caused by the gold rush in 1850. With uncommon benefits on his side (uncommon for a sailor before the mast) Dana is able to leave his ship and Captain and travel home aboard the vessel Alert, back to Boston. The caveat to Dana’s story is that he is a Harvard man.  After his second year at Harvard, Dana took a break and signed on as a crew member for his voyage “before the mast.”  The phrase Before-the-mast is defined as in the forecastle, the area of the ship where the working-class sailor is berthed.  Dana joined on as a working-class sailor in the early 19^th century, when such a profession was one of the lowest of the low, and one of much danger and isolation.  Coming form a higher class and loaded with an education higher than that of his officers, Dana stood in an interesting position.  It should be obvious to the reader that such a man could truly never experience the hardships of the common sailor, and thus his vessel could not adequately speak for them.  However, Dana’s publication did reach the public’s heart.  And the treatment of sailors, and their rights, increased a notch with Dana’s efforts.

Beyond the gorgeous descriptions of the sea, storms and sailing mechanics, the book attempts to capture the social atmosphere of the common sailor and their relations to their officers.  Highlights include: an uncalled for flogging of two men; rounding the cape horn with an undermanned ship; shipboard disease and scurvy; and a peek into a “sailor’s pleasures.” Two Years Before The Mast is used as a historical reference in our culture.  We see how sailors interact with booze and coffee. How the captain acts as a God aboard his vessel: needlessly withholding food and coffee, beating and demeaning his crew, taking risks with life.  We are told about opium, sex, and murder on a Coast with virtually no authority.  Dana writes about the early missions, their economic and trading policies.  And Dana writes about the terrors of being ill at sea, when man is worth less than the ship and its commerce. In conclusion, Two Years Before the Mast is an extremely important element on the Sailor’s Shelf.  As a representation of the lower class of seafarers, it is an important example of how we can change culture by shedding light on it, in an honest an interesting way.