7 Journal, p. 8.
8 Journal, p. 9.
9 Charles Francis Adams, Richard Henry Dana: A Biography (2 vols., Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890), vol. 1, p. 6.
10 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 7.
11 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 15.
12 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 5.
13 Autobiographical Sketch. Emerson’s letter is referred to in the introduction by Norman Holmes Pearson, p. 10.
14 Journal, p. 21.
15 Journal, p. 20.
16 Journal, pp. 19, 20.
17 journal, p. 25.
18 Journal, p. 26.
19 Journal, p. 26.
20 Journal, p. 26.
21 Journal, p. 27.
22 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 14.
23 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 16.
24 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 5.
25 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 15.
26 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, pp. 16, 17.
27 Journal, p. 28.
28 Journal, p. 30.
29 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 18.
30 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 18.
31 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 18.
32 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 19.
33 Journal, p. 37.
34 Journal, p. 37.
35 Edward Waldo Emerson, The Early Years of the Saturday Club (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), p. 39.
36 Journal, p. 28.
37 Journal, p. 28.
38 Letter to Dana from Benjamin G. Stimson, March 16, 1841 (Massachusetts Historical Society). Sections of the letter are referred to in Robert Lucid’s edition of the Journal (p. 28) and in Robert Gale’s book Richard H. Dana, Jr. (p. 181).
39 Journal, pp. 32, 33.
40 Journal, p. 28.
41 Richard Henry Dana Jr., The Seaman’s Friend (Boston: Little and Loring, 1841), dedication page.
42 Journal, p. 50.
43 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 27. It is Adams’s misspelling of “forcastle.”
44 Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), chapter 2.
45 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 46.
46 Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, edited by Richard Henry Dana III (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911): from “Seventy-six Years After,” by Richard Henry Dana III, p. 519.
47 Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911): from the introduction by Richard Henry Dana III, p. xii.
48 Ralph Waldo Emerson, review of Two Years Before the Mast, in The Dial (October 1840).
49 William Clark Russell, “Sea Stories,” in Contemporary Review (London, September 1884).
50 Russell, “Sea Stories.”
51 William Clark Russell, “A Claim for American Literature,” in North American Review (New York, February 1892).
52 This brief extract and the four in the previous paragraph are quoted in Thomas Philbrick’s introduction to Two Years Before the Mast (New York: Penguin, 1981). According to Philbrick, Bryant made his comment in the Democratic Review and Channing his two in the North American Review. The New York Review ran its notice in October 1840 (see the section Comments & Questions), and the British reviewer made his comments in the Monthly Review.
53 Russell, “A Claim for American Literature.”
54 Arthur Stedman, “Introduction,” Typee, by Herman Melville (New York and Chicago: United States Book Company, 1892).
55 Herman Melville, White-jacket; or, The World in a Man-or-War (Modern Library edition; New York: Random House, 2002), p. 99.
56 Russell, “A Claim for American Literature.”
57 Russell, “A Claim for American Literature.”
58 Richard Henry Dana III, Hospitable England in the Seventies: The Diary of a Young American, 1875-1876 (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 329.
59 Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911): from the introduction by Richard Henry Dana III, p. xiii.
60 Adams, Richard Henry Dana, p. 27.
61 Emerson, The Early Years of the Saturday Club, p. 23.
62 Autobiographical Sketch: The tribute to Dana is presented in the introduction by Norman Holmes Pearson, p. 9.
63 Emerson, The Early Years of the Saturday Club, p. 41.
A Log of Dana’s Two Years
1834
AUGUST
14 Dana boards brig Pilgrim in Boston; vessel hauls out and anchors for the night.
15 5 Pilgrim sets sail.
17 First day at sea; watches set.
20 “‘Sail ho!’ ... This was the first time that I had seen a sail at sea. I thought then, and have always since, that it exceeds every other sight in interest and beauty” (pp. 14-15).
21 “I had now got my sea legs on, and was beginning to enter upon the regular duties of a sea-life” (p. 15).
SEPTEMBER
7 Pilgrim “fell in with the north-east trade winds” (p. 22).
22 Chased by pirate ship.
OCTOBER
1 Crosses equator at 24° 24’ W: “a son of Neptune” (p. 24).
5 “‘Land ho!”’; sights Pernambuco on weather beam (p. 26).Mid-late In latitude of river La Plata.
Pamperos (violent southwest gales).
NOVEMBER
4 Pilgrim sails between Falkland Islands and Patagonia. Sights Staten Land at sunset.
5 Cape Horn “gale was growing worse and worse” (p. 30).“At day-break (about three, A.M.) the deck was covered with snow” (p. 31).
7 “Tossing about in a dead calm, and in the midst of a thick fog” (p. 31).
9 Hail storm with heavy seas for four days: “a true specimen of Cape Horn” (p. 33).
13 Crew “had now got hardened to Cape weather” (p. 34).
19 “This was a black day in our calendar.... ‘All hands ahoy! a man overboard!”’: George Ballmer lost at sea (p. 39).
25 Island of Juan Fernandez: “Our anchor struck bottom for the first time since we left Boston—one hundred and three days”; Dana goes ashore (p. 44).
27 Sets sail for California: “We caught the south-east trades, and ran before them for nearly three weeks, without so much as altering a sail or bracing a yard” (p. 51).
DECEMBER
19 Pilgrim crosses equator for second time.
25 Dana and Stimson move from berth in steerage into forecastle.
1835
JANUARY
13 Pilgrim makes land at Point Conception, California.
14 Anchors at Santa Barbara, California, “after a voyage of one hundred and fifty days from Boston” (p. 56).Begins more than seven months of voyages up and down California coast, stopping at main ports to load hides and tallow; 40,000 hides must be collected and cured before return to Boston.
Mid “My first act of what the sailors will allow to be seamanship—sending down a royal-yard” (p. 74).
Arrives in Monterey; ferries passengers to Pilgrim’s ship-board store. End Back to Santa Barbara, “the large bay without a vessel in it” (p. 89).
Makes port at San Pedro: “The desolate-looking place we were in was the best place on the whole coast for hides” (p. 98).
FEBRUARY
Captain Thompson flogs two crew members, Samuel Sparks and John Linden.
MARCH
14 Pilgrim casts anchor in San Diego.
15 Liberty Sunday in San Diego.Horse riding with fellow crew member Stimson; visit to old presidio.
Hide collecting for a fortnight.
Foster, the second mate, deserts ship.
27 Pilgrim makes slow passage of five days to San Pedro.
APRIL
1 Arrives at “our old anchoring ground at San Pedro” for a week’s stay (p. 127).Mid “Under weigh” to Santa Barbara.
Liberty Day ashore; a funeral and a cockfight.
MAY
Early “San Juan is the only romantic spot in California” (p. 138).
8 Pilgrim arrives
at San Diego; sets sails, leaving Dana on shore to work at hide-house: “In the twinkling of an eye, I was transformed from a sailor into a ‘beach-comber’ and a hide-curer” (p. 143). Pitching hides from cliffside to beach below.
JUNE
Late All available hides cured.
Awaits Pilgrim’s return.
JULY
8 Pilgrim returns with Edward Faucon, the new captain, and more hides.
AUGUST
1 “We finished curing all our hides” (p. 174).
25 Alert arrives in San Diego.
SEPTEMBER
7 Dana boards Alert and finds himself “once more afloat” (p. 178).
8 First day of duty aboard Alert.
11 Arrives in San Pedro; Dana escorts passengers from ship to shore and back, “making, as we lay nearly three miles from shore, from forty to fifty miles’ rowing in a day” (p. 189).
OCTOBER
2 Alert sets sail for Santa Barbara.
4 Arrives in Santa Barbara.
11-15 Sets sail for San Diego, where Alert discharges “hides, horns, and tallow” (p. 197).
18 Sailing day; bound for San Juan.
20 San Juan; Dana makes daring cliffside descent to dislodge “a dozen or twenty hides” (p. 198).
22 San Pedro for ten days.
NOVEMBER
1 Alert sails for Santa Barbara.
5 Arrives Santa Barbara.
14 Sails to Monterey.
15 Becalmed all day halfway between Santa Barbara and PointConception.
“For three days and three nights, the gale continued with unabated fury” (p. 219).
20 Gale blows out, “having blown us half the distance to the Sandwich Islands” (p. 220).
DECEMBER
4 Alert arrives at San Francisco Bay.Drying hides: “Our ship was nothing but a mass of hides” (p. 223).
Hide collecting finished; crew takes in wood.
27 Alert sets sail down the “magnificent bay with a light wind” (p.227).Dana reflects on San Francisco Bay: “If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the centre of its prosperity” (p. 228).
29 Comes to anchor in Santa Barbara.
1836
JANUARY
6 Sails from Monterey; Dana befriends a retainer of Don Juan Bandini.
10 Arrives at Santa Barbara again; in port for twenty-one days.
14 “We were the only vessel in the port” (p. 236).Mid Crew attends agent’s marriage and three-day Californian fandango.
FEBRUARY
1 Alert sets sail for San Pedro.
2 Arrives San Pedro; meets up with Pilgrim for first time since September 11.
3 Alert is filled up with 3,000 hides from Pilgrim.
4 Pilgrim sails to San Francisco, and Alert sets sail for San Diego (p. 242).
6 Alert arrives San Diego: “There was no vessel in port” (p. 242). Alert discharges hides; now more than 30,000 hides in store at hide-house.
9 Dana spends evening at oven with Sandwich Islanders.
10 Alert is “bound up to San Pedro”: slow sailing (p. 245).
13 Arrives San Pedro: “No other vessel in port, and the prospect of three weeks, or more, of dull life, rolling goods up a slippery hill, carrying hides on our heads over sharp stones” (p. 245).Dana meets a California ranger: “a specimen of the life of half of the Americans and English who are adrift over the whole of California” (p. 246).
23 Ship California arrives with letters, papers, and news.
25 Pilgrim sets sail for Santa Barbara.
28 Arrives Santa Barbara.
MARCH
5 “‘Good-by, Santa Barbara!-This is the last pull here’” (p. 253).
7 Arrives at San Pedro.
9 Farewell to San Pedro, “universally called the hell of California” (p. 254).
11 Arrives at San Diego for “six weeks, or two months, of the hardest work we had yet seen” (p. 255); Alert is cleaned and smoked, then sailors steeve hides in hold and take in wood and water for voyage back to Boston.
APRIL
15 Pilgrim arrives.
26 Dana secures replacement on Pilgrim and is allowed to sail on Alert.
MAY
7 Dana’s last night with his “simple true-hearted” Kanaka friends: “This was the only thing connected with leaving California which was in any way unpleasant” (p. 273).
8 Last day in California; Alert sets sail dangerously overloaded with “forty thousand hides, thirty thousand horns, besides several barrels of otter and beaver skins,” and small quantity of gold dust (p. 273).
15 Sails more than 1,300 miles in seven days: “This is the pleasure of life at sea,—fine weather, day after day, without interruption,—fair wind, and a plenty of it,—and homeward bound” (p. 281).
28 Crosses equator for third time; takes south-east trades.
JUNE
5 1,200 miles in seven days.
19 “A decided change in the appearance of things”: Heavy seas and Cape Horn weather begin (p. 289).
26 Ship on course nearly 1,700 miles westward of Cape Horn.
27 A violent storm with high wintry winds: “The decks were covered with snow, and there was a constant driving of sleet. In fact, Cape Horn had set in with good earnest” (p. 295).Dana stays below for several days with severe toothache.
JULY
1 Alert nearing latitude of Cape Horn.
2 Sighting of massive iceberg “two to three miles in circumference, and several hundred feet in height” (p. 298).
4 Dana sights thirty-four ice islands and “large fields of floating ice” (p. 300).Dana surrenders to toothache and is “cooped up alone in a black hole” (p. 304).
Back to deck after few days below to a ship “cased in ice” (p. 307). Alert makes a run for Strait of Magellan.
11 Near the Cape of Pillars.Strait abandoned due to thick fog and gale.
Alert begins second attempt to double the Cape.
Mid “ ‘Sail ho!’ ”—the first heard since San Diego, “and any one who has traversed the length of a whole ocean alone, can imagine what an excitement such an announcement produced on board” (p. 313). Passes latitude of the Cape and drifts about for eight days in dead calms, interspersed with snow and sleet.
22 Land ho! Sights Staten Land just east of Cape Horn. “We left the land gradually astern; and at sundown had the Atlantic Ocean clear before us” (p. 321).
23 Alert’s “nose straight for Boston, and Cape Horn over her taffrail. It was a moment of enthusiasm” (p. 322).
24 North of Falkland Islands: “Every hour bringing us nearer to home, and to warm weather” (p. 326).
31 2,000 miles in nine days: “This is equal to steam” (p. 327).
AUGUST
1 Dana’s birthday; he narrowly escapes 90-100 foot fall.
12 Alert makes island of Trinidad.
14 Two-year mark for Dana on voyage.
18 Makes island of Fernando Naronha at eastern tip of Brazil.
19 Crosses equator “for the fourth time since leaving Boston” (p. 333).
20 More than a week of “scorching sun” and tropical squalls (p. 334).
28 Catches north-east trade winds: “We were bowling gloriously along” (p. 336).
SEPTEMBER
4 Several days “‘humbugging about’ in the Horse latitudes” (p. 336).
5 St. Elmo’s Fire, followed by fierce electrical storm. Scurvy aboard.
11 Passing ship to the rescue with potatoes and onions. Alert passes inside of Bermudas.
15 “On the border of the Gulf Stream” (p. 346).
17 Preparing for ship to “hove-to for soundings,” as Alert nears Massachusetts. “Eighty fathoms, and no bottom! A depth as great as the height of St. Peter’s!” (p. 349).
18 Becalmed in thick fog off Block Island.
19 Alert nears George’s Bank.
20 Daybreak sight of Cape Cod sand hills and Massachusetts Bay.Dana’s last trick at the wheel, “making between nine hundred a
nd a thousand hours which I had spent at the helms of our two vessels” (p. 353).
“Let go the anchor; and for the first time since leaving San Diego,—one hundred and thirty-five days—our anchor was upon bottom” (p. 354).
Alert and her crew are “safe in Boston harbor; our long voyage ended” (p. 354).
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
Crowded in the rank and narrow ship,—
Housed on the wild sea with wild usages,—
Whate’er in the inland dales the land conceals
Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing,
Do we behold of that in our rude voyage.
COLERIDGE’S WALLENSTEIN.
Preface
I am unwilling to present this narrative to the public without a few words in explanation of my reasons for publishing it. Since Mr. Cooper’s Pilot and Red Rover,a there have been so many stories of sea-life written, that I should really think it unjustifiable in me to add one to the number without being able to give reasons in some measure warranting me in so doing.
With the single exception, as I am quite confident, of Mr. Ames’ entertaining, but hasty and desultory work, called “Mariner’s Sketches,”b all the books professing to give life at sea have been written by persons who have gained their experience as naval officers, or passengers, and of these, there are very few which are intended to be taken as narratives of facts.
Two Years Before the Mast (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 5
