Two Years Before the Mast : With an introduction and notes by Homer Eaton Keyes, B.L. Assistant Professor of Art in Dartmouth College(Illustrated) (with linked TOC)

Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana (1840) Scion of a prominent Boston family, Dana dropped out of Harvard and, hoping to recover the strength of his eyes, weakened by measles, signed on with a merchant ship as a common sailor. His book about his time at sea is an American classic, vivid in its description of the sailor's life and all its dangers and delights