Cat's review of Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea

Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Modern Library Classics)
by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Cat's review

rating:

bookshelves: 19thcenturyamericanliterature

recommended for: Kerouac fans

status: Read in February, 2004

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 s...more 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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Cat's review of Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea

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