|
Introductory Note
Voyages
Introductory Note
Richard Henry Dana, the second of that name, was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, August 1, 1815. He came of a stock that had resided there since
the days of the early settlements; his grandfather, Francis Dana, had been the
first American minister to Russia and later became Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts; his father was distinguished as a man of
letters. He entered Harvard College in 1831; but near the beginning of his
third year an attack of measles left his eyesight so weak that study was
impossible. Tired of the tedium of a slow convalescence, he decided on a sea
voyage; and choosing to go as a sailor rather than a passenger, he shipped
from Boston on August 14, 1834, on the brig "Pilgrim," bound for the coast of
California. His experiences for the next two years form the subject of the
present volume.
[See R.H. Dana, Jr.]
In the December following his return to Boston in 1836, Dana re-entered
Harvard, the hero of his fellow students, graduating in the following June. He
next took up the study of law, at the same time teaching elocution in the
College, and in 1840 he opened an office in Boston. While in the law school he
had written out the narrative of his voyage, which he now published; and in
the following year, 1841, issued "The Seaman`s Friend." Both books were
republished in England, and brought him an immediate reputation.
After several years of the practise of law, during which he dealt largely
with cases involving the rights of seamen, he began to take part in politics
as an active member of the Free-Soil Party. During the operation of the
Fugitive-Slave Law he acted as counsel in behalf of the fugitives Shadrach,
Sims, and Burns, and on one occasion suffered serious assault as a consequence
of his zeal. His prominence in these cases, along with his fame as a writer,
brought him much social recognition on his visit to England in 1856. Three
years later, his health gave way from overwork, and he set out on a voyage
round the world, revisiting California, where he made the observations which
appear in the postscript to this book.
On his return, Dana was appointed by Lincoln United States District
Attorney for Massachusetts; and in his arguments before the Supreme Court in
Washington in connection with the "Prize causes," dealing with the capture of
private property at sea in time of war, he greatly increased an already
brilliant legal reputation.
After the close of the War he resigned his office of District Attorney,
as he could not approve of President Johnson`s policy of Reconstruction, and
returned to private practice. This he relinquished in 1878, in order to go to
Europe to devote himself to the preparation of a treatise on international
law; but the actual composition of this work was little more than begun when
he died in Rome, January 6, 1882, and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery,
where lie the ashes of Keats and Shelley.
The record of Dana`s life agrees with the picture of his temperament
which he unconsciously painted in his first and greatest book. The ready
sympathy for the suffering and the oppressed, the courage, unselfishness, and
fair-mindedness which he exhibited on the merchant vessel when a boy of
twenty, continued to characterize him throughout his long and distinguished
career as lawyer and citizen.
The merit of "Two Years Before the Mast" was recognized in both America
and England immediately after its appearance, and it at once took rank as the
most vivid and accurate picture in literature of the side of life it sought to
portray. W. Clark Russell, himself one of the best writers of sea-stories in
English, called it "the greatest sea-book that was ever written in any
language," and the convincing detail of its narrative led to comparisons with
the masterpiece of Defoe. Its value and interest today are even greater than
they were when it was written; for, while the purely human element remains the
same, the account of the routine on board the old sailing ships, the picture
of the trading on the coast of California, and the description of the country
in the days before the discovery of gold had transformed its civilization,
have all acquired an historical importance. Much is added, also, by the
unaffected literary skill of the narrator. Such episodes as the flogging of
Sam and John the Swede, the dry gale off Point Conception, the wedding
fandango at Santa Barbara, the Kanakas in the oven, the funeral in San Pedro,
the rounding of Cape Horn in the "Alert," have passed into the list of the
memorable things in literature.
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, 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," 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.
Now, in the first place, the whole course of life, and daily duties, the
discipline, habits and customs of a man-of-war are very different from those
of the merchant service; and in the next place, however entertaining and well
written these books may be, and however accurately they may give sea-life as
it appears to their authors, it must still be plain to every one that a naval
officer, who goes to sea as a gentleman, "with his gloves on," (as the phrase
is,) and who associates only with his fellow officers, and hardly speaks to a
sailor except through a boatswain`s mate, must take a very different view of
the whole matter from that which would be taken by a common sailor.
Besides the interest which every one must feel in exhibitions of life in
those forms in which he himself has never experienced it, there has been, of
late years, a great deal of attention directed toward common seamen, and a
strong sympathy awakened in their behalf. Yet I believe that, with the single
exception which I have mentioned, there has not been a book written,
professing to give their life and experiences, by one who has been of them,
and can know what their life really is. A voice from the forecastle has hardly
yet been heard.
In the following pages I design to give an accurate and authentic
narrative of a little more than two years spent as a common sailor, before the
mast, in the American merchant service. It is written out from a journal which
I kept at the time, and from notes which I made of most of the events as they
happened; and in it I have adhered closely to fact in every particular, and
endeavored to give each thing its true character. In so doing, I have been
obliged occasionally to use strong and coarse expressions, and in some
instances to give scenes which may be painful to nice feelings; but I have
very carefully avoided doing so, whenever I have not felt them essential to
giving the true character of a scene. My design is, and it is this which has
induced me to publish the book, to present the life of a common sailor at sea
as it really is - the light and the dark together.
There may be in some parts a good deal that is unintelligible to the
general reader; but I have found from my own experience, and from what I have
heard from others, that plain matters of fact in relation to customs and
habits of life new to us, and descriptions of life under new aspects, act upon
the inexperienced through the imagination, so that we are hardly aware of our
want of technical knowledge. Thousands read the escape of the American frigate
through the British channel, and the chase and wreck of the Bristol trader in
the Red Rover, and follow the minute nautical manoeuvres with breathless
interest, who do not know the name of a rope in the ship; and perhaps with
none the less admiration and enthusiasm for their want of acquaintance with
the professional detail.
In preparing this narrative I have carefully avoided incorporating into
it any impressions but those made upon me by the events as they occurred,
leaving to my concluding chapter, to which I shall respectfully call the
reader`s attention, those views which have been suggested to me by subsequent
reflection.
These reasons, and the advice of a few friends, have led me to give this
narrative to the press. If it shall interest the general reader, and call more
attention to the welfare of seamen, or give any information as to their real
condition, which may serve to raise them in the rank of beings, and to promote
in any measure their religious and moral improvement, and diminish the
hardships of their daily life, the end of its publication will be answered.
R. H. D., Jr.
Boston, July, 1840.
|
