Two Years Before the Mast (Solis Classics)

This book is the account of the author s life as a common sailor between 1834 and 1836. Dana was a Harvard undergraduate and decided to go before the mast and experience life at sea. The book has been described as one of American literature s classics. The author s plan for his book was to give an accurate and authentic narrative of a little more than two years spent as a common sailor, before the mast, in the American merchant service. It is written out from a journal which I kept at the time, and from notes which I made of most of the events as they happened; and in it I have adhered closely to fact in every particular, and endeavored to give each thing its true character.