Two years before the mast / by Richard Henry Dana ; abridged and adapted by John M. Hurdy ; illustrated by Dennis Dierks.
1971
CMC G 540 .D22 1971 (Mapit)
Available at Children's Materials Collection
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Details
Title
Two years before the mast / by Richard Henry Dana ; abridged and adapted by John M. Hurdy ; illustrated by Dennis Dierks.
Author
Hurdy, John M. (John Major)
Publication Details
Belmont, Calif., Fearon Publishers [1971]
Language
English
Description
92 p. : col. ill. ; 20 cm.
Call Number
CMC G 540 .D22 1971
Dewey Decimal Classification
910.4/5
Summary
A simplified edition of the work describing life at sea in the 1830's from the viewpoint of a common sailor in the American merchant service. Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) of Boston left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels. Two years before the mast (1911) is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European.
Series
Pacemaker classics
Record Appears in
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