Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
(1815 - 1882)
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast.
Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves.
Bibliography
Two Years Before the Mast (1840)
His studies at Harvard interrupted by vision problems, the author embarked as a merchant seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834 on a voyage to Alta California, still under Mexican rule. After helping to cure and load a cargo of cow hides, he was transferred to the Alert and made an eastward passage of Cape Horn in the dead of winter. Read online at Hathitrust.
Two Years Before the Mast (1904)
The author shipped before the mast on a voyage to California in 1834 to collect a cargo of hides.
Two Years Before the Mast (1911)
His studies at Harvard interrupted by vision problems, the author embarked as a merchant seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834 on a voyage to Alta California, still under Mexican rule. After helping to cure and load a cargo of cow hides he was transferred to the Alert and made an eastward passage of Cape Horn in the dead of winter. Read online at archive.org.