Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. New York: Macmillan, 1911. Introduction by Sir Wilfred Grenfell with seventeen full-color illustrations by Charles Pears. Republished as part of the Macmillan Facsimile Classics Series.
Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. Edited by John Haskell Kemble; illustrated by Robert A. Weinstein. Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1964. This comprehensive two-volume boxed set, which includes a comprehensive index, is the most authoritative annotated text. Kemble presents a text composed of Dana’s original manuscript and first-edition narrative. Among the many insightful appendices are letters, documents, and the small notebook journal account Dana kept during the original voyage; Dana referred to this journal when writing Two Years Before the Mast. Kemble gives details of crews, vessels, and people mentioned in Dana’s book. Records from the California trade give an idea of the active shipping world in which Dana worked. Weinstein’s illustrations are supplemented by painting, prints, photographs, and charts.
Other Works by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
An Autobiographical Sketch (1815-1842) . Edited by Robert F. Metzdorf. Hamden, CT: Shoe String Press, 1953. Metzdorf provides extensive annotation. Includes an introduction by Norman Holmes Pearson.
The Journal of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 3 vols. Edited by Robert F. Lucid. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968. Offers insight into Dana’s journal writings. He chronicled his early life in the “Autobiographical Sketch” (the same text as in the volume noted directly above), followed by almost two decades worth of daily journal writing. Lucid’s book also presents Dana’s writings from his voyage around the world in 1859 and 1860.
The Seaman’s Friend. Boston: Little and Loring, 1841. The guide book’s subtitle lists the contents, “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.” Also in 1841, the book was published by E. Moxon in London as The Seaman’s Manual.
Speeches in Stirring Times and Letters to a Son. Edited Richard Henry Dana III. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1859. An account of Dana’s visit to Cuba; the author comments on the land he visits beyond the immediate sightseeing and observations of local custom, writing about the socio-economic realities and the importance of Cuba’s sugar plantations.
Original Manuscripts and Correspondence
Dana’s main unpublished material is housed in the Massachusetts Historical Society, in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as in collections at the Longfellow House and Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA. Other unpublished correspondence is kept at the National Archives and in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Biography
Adams, Charles Francis. Richard Henry Dana: A Biography. 2 vols. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890. Dana’s first biographer worked in Dana’s law office; as part of Dana’s New England Brahmin world, Adam understood the social pressures in Dana’s academic and career life.
Shapiro, Samuel. Richard Henry Dana, Jr.: 1815-1882. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1961.
Criticism and Scholarship
Gale, Robert L. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. New York: Twayne, 1969. An energetic, insightful and comprehensive study of Dana’s life. Gale analyzes the structure and form of Dana’s voyage narrative as well as his other major works.
Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: T. Seltzer, 1923.
General Background
Brooks, Van Wyck. The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1936. Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize in History for his book about the New England of Dana’s era.
Emerson, Edward Waldo. The Early Years of the Saturday Club. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1918. Emerson writes of Dana’s place in the Massachusetts cultural club and gives a small profile of Dana. Includes photograph of Richard Henry Dana Jr.
James, George Wharton. In and Out of the Old Missions of California. Boston: Little, Brown, 1927. James writes an historical and pictorial account of the Franciscan Missions.
London, Jack. The Human Drift. New York: Macmillan, 1917. In this collection of short stories and essays, London includes “A Classic of the Sea” (1911), to which he gave the subheading “Introduction to Two Years Before the Mast.”
Pourade, Richard F. Time of the Bells. San Diego, CA: Union-Tribune Publishing, Copley Press, 1961. This book, volume 2 of The History of San Diego (7 vols., 1960-1977) describes mission life in San Diego from 1769 to 1835. Pourade’s complete history of San Diego is presented online (www.sandiegohistory.org) as part of a volunteer project organized by the San Diego Historical Society.
a James Fenimore Cooper’s novels The Pilot (1823) and The Red Rover (1828).
b Nathaniel Ames published A Mariner’s Sketches in 1830.
c Square-rigged vessel, with two masts. Definitions for many of the nautical terms are given in the Appendix, which contains Dana’s “Dictionary of Sea Terms,” published in his 1841 book The Seaman’s Friend.
d God of the sea in Roman mythology.
e That is, the wind is blowing from the direction in which the vessel intends to go. †Anchorage at some distance from shore.
f Machine used in merchant vessels for weighing (lifting) the anchor.
g Time aboard ship is divided into seven watches each day. At sea, the crew is divided for work purposes into two watches: the starboard watch, and the larboard, or port, watch. Dana elaborates on watches in chapter III.
h Stimson. Dana shortened the names of many characters to a single letter followed by a long dash. In this edition, footnotes provide the names.
i State of confusion.
j Vessel almost squarely on her side.
k Reduce the amount of sail to lessen its exposure to the wind.
l Dana is standing on the upper deck, between the quarter-deck and the forecastle, facing the direction from which the wind is blowing.
m Device measuring the ship’s rate of sailing.
n Cry used when a sail is first seen at sea.
o Telescope.
p Communicate with a passing ship at sea.
q Owner’s agent in charge of all cargo sales and company business transactions aboard ship.
r Beginning work.
s Cask holding the crew’s drinking water.
t Pulled upon a tackle.
u Stuff made by picking rope-yarn to pieces; used for caulking and other purposes.
v Box near the helm containing the compass.
w The North Star in the constellation Ursa Minor is also called Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) or the Seaman’s Star. ‡Foster.
x Wooden covering over the staircase to a cabin.
y Meaning “soldier”; the worst term of reproach that can be applied to a sailor, signifying one who shirks his duty. Dana elaborates further in his note in chapter XVII (given in this edition in endnote 25).
z Sailors called Recife, a northeastern Brazilian seaport, Pernambuco for the name of its province (now state).
aa River running between Argentina and Uruguay.
ab A dog’s ear is the bend of a sail’s edge when reefed.
ac Middle of a sail. ‡Waterproof hat of oiled cloth or canvas with a long back brim to protect a sailor’s neck in stormy weather.
ad The Falkland Islands are in the South Atlantic about 200 miles east of Patagonia, the grassy tableland in the far south of Argentina.
ae Time allotted to a man to stand at the helm.
af stimson.
ag “Grampus” was a generic name for any small, whale-like creature; Dana may have meant dolphins or porpoises.
ah Sailors on starboard watch. In the author’s 1869 edition of Two Years Before the Mast, Dana added this footnote: “It is the fashion to call the respective watches Starbowlines and Larbowlines.”
ai Blowing or flapping in a strong wind.
aj Dana gives the recipe for this sailor’s thin drink on page 302; it was sometimes referred to as “water bewitched, and rum begrudged.”
ak Sailors’ term for the wooden tub from which their meals were dispensed. See Dana’s notes, given in this edition as endnotes 39 and 44.
al The position of the ship; see “Reckoning” in the “Dictionary of Sea Terms” (p. 450).
am Legendary spectral ship condemned to sail tempestuous seas for eternity.
an Excessively; to a troubling degree.
ao Principal Chilean seaport and the largest on the Pacific coast of South America.
ap One nautical fathom is 6 feet, so 40 fathoms is 240 feet.
aq Alert (Spanish); a warning sound.
ar Garrisoned fort.
as Stimson.
at George Anson (1697-1762), first British lord of the admiralty; his ship, the Centurion, landed at Juan Fernandez in 1741.
au In the late 1780s the British attempted to found a penal colony at Botany Bay, Australia, near Sydney. Although the site was unsuitable and the settlement was established to the north at Port Jackson, for years the term “Botany Bay” was used to refer to the penal colony.
av Walk (Spanish).
aw Important whaling port in southeastern Massachusetts.
ax A cable (a large, strong rope) is usually 120 fathoms (720 feet) in length.
ay Stimson.
az Mellus.
ba Loose, smock-like work garment made of heavy cotton.
bb Stimson.
bc Men assigned to duty on the poop or quarter-deck.
bd Person aboard ship who is neither crew nor regular passenger; often a friend of the captain or the vessel’s owner.
be Frank Thompson.
bf Popular New England cake-like bread made of cornmeal.
bg Major Peruvian seaport, located near Lima.
bh Old name for the Hawaiian Islands.
bi Dana.
bj Small watch of one or two men, kept while in port.
bk Italian seaport.
bl Oahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands; Honolulu is on Oahu.
bm Dana added this footnote to his 1869 edition: “ ‘Bear-a-hand’ is to make haste.”
bn The speed that a ship must maintain in order to be steered.
bo There were several first-rate British naval ships with the name HMS Royal George.
bp Robinson.
bq Thompson.
br Suddenly lowered.
bs Robinson.
bt Dana.
bu Dana changed this to “trestle trees” in his 1869 edition; see “Trestle-trees” in the “Dictionary of Sea Terms,” p. 459.
bv Stimson.
bw That is, calculating the ship’s latitude by measuring the noonday sun’s angle to the horizon.
bx Good (Latin).
by Common sailor, as in “Jack Tar.”
bz Efforts of a sailor to kill time and avoid hard work.
ca Edward Thompson Taylor (1793-1871), chaplain of the Seamen’s Bethel in Boston, was known for his use of nautical phrases in his sermons.
cb Foster.
cc former.
cd Robinson.
ce High-ranking Spanish nobleman.
cf Silver coin worth about 12½ cents.
cg Mellus.
ch Magistrates and judges (Spanish).
ci A pommel is a knob at the front of a saddle.
cj Dances.
ck Tattooed.
cl Official seal of the British Lord High Admiral; a foul anchor is one whose cable (rope) has been twisted around part of it.
cm Foster.
cn Pacific coast mountain range.
co Workers who collect and transport hides.
cp Now called a squeegee; used for sweeping seawater from the deck.
cq Usually spelled “guess-warps”; ropes used to fasten the end of a boat to a wharf.
cr Merchant ship used in the India trade.
cs Willy-nilly (Latin).
ct Thompson.
cu Literally, liniments of labor (Latin).
cv The arrangement by which the watches are alternated every other four hours; see “Watch” in “Dictionary of Sea Terms,” on p. 460.
cw See “Haze” in “Dictionary of Sea Terms,” on p. 443; “working their old iron up” is threatening a harsh punishment.
cx Soft woolen fabric with a felt-like texture.
cy I do not want (Spanish).
cz Stimson
da Neat, thorough, seaman-like order.
db Offense.
dc Bind him with rope.
dd Amerzene.
de Thompson.
df Sailor’s thick serge coat.
dg Shelter.
dh Dana probably means coyote. In the original manuscript, Dana wrote “coyata.” In the “Twenty-four Years After” section, Dana notes, “The coyotes bark still in the woods” (p. 391).
di The Pirate, by Sir Walter Scott, was published in 1822.
dj Slackening up on the cable and letting it run out.
dk Thompson.
dl Stimson.
dm Sailors’ shore clothes.
dn Tavern or store selling liquor.
do Willing or unwilling (French).
dp Is there something to eat (Spanish)?
dq Yes sir! What would you like (Spanish)?
dr May God pay you—that is, bless you (Spanish).
ds English sailors (Spanish).
dt In good cheer.
du Stop! “Vast” is short for “avast.”
dv In a tragic Greek tale, Leander swam the Hellespont every night to visit his beloved, Hero.
dw Foster.
dx The captain threatened to break Foster’s spirit.
dy Thompson.
dz Belongings.
ea Stimson.
eb 3 miles or more.
ec One of southern Spain’s main seaports on the Atlantic Ocean.
ed Topped up at an angle with the deck, in this case to signify mourning.
ee Venetian song (barcarole) popular with sailors.
ef David Garrick (1717-1779) was a famous actor of the British stage.
eg It doesn’t matter (Spanish)!
eh Julius Caesar’s famous phrase: “I came, I saw, I conquered” (Latin).
ei “Horses” and “horse race” (Spanish).
ej Bravo! Again! Hurrah to the sailors (Spanish)!
ek Folksongs sung by Venetian gondoliers, typically in 6/8 time that suggests a rowing rhythm.
el Race of brutes displaying mankind’s form and vices, from Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726).
em From the fourth stanza of William Wordsworth’s poem “On the Power of Sound” (1828).
en Near quotation from Shakespeare’s King Lear (act 4, scene 6).
eo Thompson.
ep The letter i in the Sandwich Island language is sounded like e in the English. [Dana’s note]
eq Times favorable for speaking (Latin).
er Dangerous shoals or sandbanks off Kent, in southeastern England.
es Massachusetts island to the south of Cape Cod.
et Made up on the spur of the moment.
eu Person who improvises (Italian).
ev Dana refers to this gathering as “a farewell blow out,” in his original unedited manuscript.
ew Mixture (French).
Two Years Before the Mast (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 60