Two Years Before The Mast (Folio Society Edition) Richard Dana

A sickly Harvard student, Richard Henry Dana Jr. left his privileged life to enlist as a common sailor for his health. This classic memoir recounts his grueling two-year voyage from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the remote ports of Mexican California aboard a merchant brig. Enduring terrifying storms, harsh labor, and brutal discipline “before the mast,” Dana provides an unvarnished and powerful portrait of 19th-century seafaring and the injustices faced by the common seaman, transforming a sickly youth into a seasoned man.