Tuesday, August 15, 2017

A Voice from the Forecastle

Two Years Before the Mast: 
A Sailor's Life at Sea 


Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea


"I determined to go before the mast, where I knew the constant occupation would make reading unnecessary and the hard work, plain diet and life in the open air, away from coal fires, dust and lamplight, would do much to give rest to the nerves of the eye, and would above all make a gradual change in my physical system."  - Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Autobiography




Richard Henry Dana tells the story of his trip, subtitled "A Sailor's Life at Sea", in the brig Pilgrim out of Boston in 1834. Only 19 years old, the Harvard student signed on as a deck hand. For the next two years he experienced a sailor's rugged life, traveling around Cape Horn, visiting Mexico's California territory a full 15 years before it became a U.S. state, and returning home in 1836. The Pilgrim was 'a swearing ship', in which the brutal and choleric Captain Thompson imposed his discipline by bad language, and the Sabbath, normally a kind of token rest day for the crew, was never observed, except by the black African cook reading his bible all day alone in his galley. Apparently Captain Thompson was from the same mold as Herman Wouk's Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny.

The everyday details of his journey are surprisingly vivid. On their first week at sea, they spot a pirate ship, and must outrun it on a moonless night. Dolphins follow the ship as it heads for Cape Horn. The Captain's patience is tried by a lazy first mate who refuses to watch for icebergs. And when a man falls overboard, the captain must assure the crew that a thorough search was conducted. The discipline was brutal and flogging was cruel. The author did not attempt to oppose the Captain, but he did devote much of his subsequent life towards improving the conditions of seamen's lives aboard ship.

What made his story unique was that Dana chose to go "before the mast" and live the life of a real sailor unlike those narratives told by passengers on board ship.  The edition I read included a glossary that was helpful since there were so many terms in the book unique to sailing. I found the book to be an exciting story made interesting by the well-educated young man who chose to go to sea as a shipmate 'before the mast' rather than a cabin passenger in the officers' quarters.

4 comments:

Mudpuddle said...

this is a terrific book; after reading it i was led into an extensive period of sea-faring(literary, of course) which included Marryat, Melville, Binns, Forrester and many other authors... a great introduction to a sailor's life in the past centuries...

recommended: Lord Anson's journal of his trip around the world in the 1740's...

Brian Joseph said...

This sounds really good. The thought of signing on to such a voyage where conditions were so brutal is inconceivable. I guess that many sailors did not know what they were getting into.

James said...

Mudpuddle,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I've also enjoyed other sea tales from Kipling, Conrad, and Nordhoff & Hall; but the one book I would recommend is Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World.

James said...

Brian,
The narrative was brutal at times, but also informative and exciting. Hard as the life of a seaman was they may have reasons to live that life at sea that made the difficulties bearable. I guess I found Dana's strength of will to choose the experience the most amazing aspect of his story.