Two Years Before the Mast
~ by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
If someone told me a decade ago that a book about a young-man-coming-of-age-via-his-two -year-adventure-on-board-sailing -ships-in-the-1800's-written-in-detailed-narrative-form would be of any interest to me, I would have - at the very least...scoffed.
Go figure.
I love this book.
I'm only halfway through Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s personal narrative, and I've already ear-marked it as a 'must re-read to learn more' book.
You can read it online here or here or here and at numerous other sites (entire books online - isn't that something?!?).
Better yet, pick up a hard copy at your local library to hold in your hands, curl up with in your favorite chair and leisurely peruse chapter by chapter.
The very best approach would be to purchase the book for the at-home library. Then you have the luxury to savor it...slowly... time and again...
3 comments:
Now B.
Were their any Allens, Bullards or the like in the book.
Evidently there is a distant relative somewhere in the Mast.
Never read it,
My dad loved it,
my mom, too.
Gotta get a copy.
How fun to have such a different book recommendation! I will check it out!
Two Years Before the Mast certainly isn't for everyone.
However, in my thinking - we should all give it a go - and a read.
As expected, there are plenty of lengthy descriptions of shipboard duties and nautical terms up the yinyang.
What surprises me is that so many of the seaworthy phrases/words are common use in our daily speech.
I love the historical aspect of the book from the first-person real life experience perspective.
My Dad was a seaman for years, traveling to many an exotic port-of-call (100 years after this book was written). Dad didn't work or live on ships with sails, but I imagine his view of the vast ocean and life-at-sea was little different from Richard Henry Dana's...hence my personal connection with the book.
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