brendan's review of Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast (Signet Classics) by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
brendan's review
rating:
recommended for:
sailors and wannabe o'brien fans
status:
Read in May, 2008
this book is absolutely essential for anyone who has any desire of stepping off the quarterdeck of his historical fiction (O'Brien novels) and heading down to the focs'l to hear about sailing traditional ships from the men who were actually sweating lines, heave-yo-ho-ing, and climbing the rigging to furl the royals before a gale.
dana passes the equator four times over the two years that he is a merchant mariner sailing to, the then mexican owned california, to load his ship with hides bound for boston's leather factories. the narrative style is straight forward and matter of fact. dana hardly lets his bias sit between the reader and the tale. filled with technical sail handling language the amateur mariner might choose to read up on square sail theory before reading or merely depend upon his imagination.
dana provides a vivid description of pre U.S. california and the hide trade that provided americans with their first contacts with the pacific coast (not ...more
dana passes the equator four times over the two years that he is a merchant mariner sailing to, the then mexican owned california, to load his ship with hides bound for boston's leather factories. the narrative style is straight forward and matter of fact. dana hardly lets his bias sit between the reader and the tale. filled with technical sail handling language the amateur mariner might choose to read up on square sail theory before reading or merely depend upon his imagination.
dana provides a vivid description of pre U.S. california and the hide trade that provided americans with their first contacts with the pacific coast (not ...more
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