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Two Years Before the Mast was originally written by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and it was first published in 1840. Dana wrote the story in the form of a diary which he kept from day to day. He was nineteen when he sailed from Boston on the brig Pilgrim. After two years as a common sailor, he returned to Boston and wrote his book.
In this retold tale, The Story of Two Years Before the Mast, Dana is made the hero of an action-adventure story of the sea. It is written in the third person.
As Dana says in his original book, his is a voice from the forecastle. The present story gives the life of a sailor as Dana lived it, the adventure, the hardships, the cruelty and brutality, and the humiliation.
But times have changed. There are few sailing ships left. The life of a sailor today is very different from what it was in Dana's time.
His book did much to bring about better living and working conditions for sailors. Anyone who likes adventure sea stories will like The Story of Two Years Before the Mast. —FRANK L. BEALS
—from the book
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