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Two Years Before the Mast cover

Two Years Before the Mast

Richard Henry Dana Jr.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2
Word count
917K words
Chapters
92
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Tags

English Originals Documentary LiteratureForeign Literature Adventure CareerSea VoyageYouthful TrialResilienceDocumentary NarrativeAutobiographicalSea JournalSea Voyage19th Century AmericaAmerican Past

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry DanaAuthor: Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882,Language: English, Class: G: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation, Release Date: Feb 1, 2000

Editor's review

Two Years Before the Mast is a nautical memoir based on Dana's own voyage experiences, long regarded as a classic account of nineteenth-century merchant sailors' lives. Its value lies not in adventurous legend but in a firsthand record of ordinary sailors' labor, discipline, hierarchy, and daily life at sea, with solid detail and restrained tone. Readers can see the operating procedures of the sailing era, port trade, and crew conditions, and also sense the author's observations and reflections on unjust treatment. As a Project Gutenberg English original eBook, it suits readers interested in maritime history, social history, and documentary literature, as well as English readers ready to tackle a longer work of nonfiction narrative. While reading, pay attention to how the author balances personal experience with objective record and how documentary writing builds credibility. The book is long; reading it in stages is recommended rather than rushing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers interested in maritime history and nineteenth-century merchant ship life
  • Nonfiction readers who enjoy documentary literature and firsthand narratives
  • Advanced English learners seeking long-form original reading material
  • History enthusiasts concerned with labor conditions and social class

Not a good fit for

  • Readers seeking only fast-paced adventure fiction or plot-driven stories
  • Those with limited English reading experience who struggle with long originals
  • Readers expecting a systematic seamanship tutorial or professional manual

Reading tips

  1. Divide the reading into units by voyage stage and review changes in the sailors' situation after each section.
  2. Prepare a simple list of characters and ship terms to reduce interruptions from unfamiliar vocabulary.
  3. Note the author's descriptions of labor and discipline, and afterward summarize his views on crew treatment.
  4. If time is limited, read the opening and return voyage first, then fill in the middle voyage details.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
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  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
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  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
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  37. 37
  38. 38
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
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  46. 46
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  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
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  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
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  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92

FAQ

Is this book a fictional novel?
It is not a fictional novel but a documentary work based on the author's firsthand experience sailing on a merchant ship. The characters and voyage have real foundations, and the narrative is primarily observation and record; it should be read as nonfiction.
Is the English original long, and is it suitable for beginners?
It is fairly long and contains many nautical terms and nineteenth-century English expressions, so it is not suitable for English beginners to read straight through. It is better suited to readers with a solid English reading foundation willing to proceed in stages, with notes or background materials if needed.
What can readers gain from this book?
Readers can learn about the daily work of merchant sailors in the sailing era, shipboard hierarchy, and port trade scenes, and appreciate how documentary literature builds a sense of reality through firsthand detail. It is especially helpful for understanding nineteenth-century maritime labor conditions.

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About the author

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Author · American · 1815–1882

Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882) was an American lawyer, writer, and abolitionist. In 1834 he sailed to California as an ordinary seaman, and drew on this firsthand experience to write Two Years Before the Mast (1840). The book records the realities of work at sea and the life of sailors in plain, concrete prose, and has become a classic of American maritime literature, giving readers a view of daily life aboard nineteenth-century merchant ships. Dana also wrote The Seaman's Friend and long advocated for the rights of sailors and fugitive slaves. Four of his works are held in this collection; public information is limited, and his writing is grounded in personal observation and a concern for the public good.

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