Two Years Before the Mast

Two Years Before the Mast chronicles the two-year sea voyage of Richard Henry Dana Jr., a Harvard student who signed onto the merchant brig Pilgrim as an ordinary sailor in 1834. He sailed from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California. The Pilgrim traded goods from the United States for the Mexican-era California missions’ and ranchos’ cow hides. They traded at the ports in San Diego Bay, San Pedro Bay, Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. Dana’s vivid, enthralling account describes the sometimes harrowing experiences of the common sailor while offering empathetic, astute insights into the cultures and customs of the peoples he encountered.

This Warbler Classics edition is based on the 1909 Macmillan publication of the book, which includes extensive annotations and contributions by Homer Eaton Keyes that provide valuable context and explanations of nautical terms. Also included is a brief history of the brig Pilgrim.

Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who is now best known as the author of the classic American memoir Two Years Before the Mast. An attorney, he successfully represented the U.S. government before the U.S. Supreme Court during the Civil War in the Prize Cases (a group of four United States Supreme Court cases that upheld President Abraham Lincoln’s authority to blockade Southern ports during the American Civil War). Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the oppressed.

Homer Eaton Keyes (1875–1938) was an author and professor at Dartmouth College, and the founding editor of the magazine Antiques.