![]() The simple, direct style of writing, the ‘voice from the forecastle’ as Dana himself described the book, stamped it as one of the great masterpieces of marine literature.ĭana became an authority on maritime law, and was also something of a politician, but public office in this field always just evaded him. They bought all rights in the manuscript for $250, and the book was published in 1841. No New York publisher would look at it until eventually Harper's was persuaded to give it a trial. He kept a log throughout the two years of his spell at sea, and during the intervals of his law studies prepared the log for publication under the title Two Years Before the Mast. However, he returned in a larger ship, the Alert, which he joined halfway through the voyage to escape the brutalities of the brig's captain. ![]() The brig sailed in August 1834, and Dana stepped ashore again in Boston in September 1836 with the eye weakness permanently cured. ![]() ![]() He had the idea that a sea voyage and work on board a ship would cure his eye troubles, and he signed on as a paid hand in the Boston brig Pilgrim, for a trading voyage round Cape Horn and up the Pacific seaboard. ![]() His family had been lawyers for generations, and Richard was sent to Harvard to study for the same profession, but an attack of measles during a period when he was rusticated from the university so affected his eyes that he was unable to continue his studies. ![]()
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