Two Years Before the Mast
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
While there are many books upon the subject of sea life, there are few that can compare with Two Years Before the Mast. It is the story of a sailor's life from the forecastle, not a captain, nor a passenger, but a regular hand. The book was a great favorite with the jack tar of Dana's day, and two thousand copies are said to have been sold to Liverpool sailors in a single day. Even those who haven't the faintest idea what reefing topsail is, or which is starboard and which larboard, will find it an engaging story of an era long past told in simple narrative style. (Summary by BethAnne)
Dedicated Proof-Listener: Gesine & Rapunzelina
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: Jc Guan & TriciaG
(17 hr 41 min)
Chapters
Preface | 5:10 | Read by BethAnne |
Departure | 5:48 | Read by BethAnne |
First Impressions | 16:21 | Read by BethAnne |
Ship's Duties | 14:14 | Read by BethAnne |
Sundays At Sea | 18:40 | Read by BethAnne |
Cape Horn | 23:41 | Read by BethAnne |
Loss of a Man | 12:19 | Read by BethAnne |
Juan Fernandez | 16:55 | Read by BethAnne |
Daily Life | 14:00 | Read by BethAnne |
Santa Barbra | 20:21 | Read by BethAnne |
A South Easter | 11:37 | Read by BethAnne |
Passage Up the Coast | 13:12 | Read by BethAnne |
Monterey | 7:33 | Read by BethAnne |
Trading At Monterey | 27:01 | Read by BethAnne |
Discontent | 32:00 | Read by BethAnne |
Flogging, Part 1 | 19:57 | Read by BethAnne |
Flogging, Part 2 | 18:28 | Read by BethAnne |
Liberty Day on Shore | 21:03 | Read by BethAnne |
San Diego | 19:37 | Read by BethAnne |
Easter Sunday, Part 1 | 19:27 | Read by BethAnne |
Easter Sunday, Part 2 | 17:27 | Read by BethAnne |
Sandwich-Islanders, Part 1 | 20:05 | Read by BethAnne |
Sandwich-Islanders, Part 2 | 19:58 | Read by BethAnne |
New Comers | 23:07 | Read by BethAnne |
California and its Inhabitants | 15:40 | Read by BethAnne |
The Alert | 16:22 | Read by BethAnne |
New Ship and Shipmates, Part 1 | 25:53 | Read by BethAnne |
New Ship and Shipmates, Part 2 | 23:50 | Read by BethAnne |
San Diego Again | 19:20 | Read by BethAnne |
Rumours of War, Part 1 | 23:10 | Read by BethAnne |
Rumours of War, Part 2 | 21:56 | Read by BethAnne |
San Francisco | 22:25 | Read by BethAnne |
A Fandango | 28:11 | Read by BethAnne |
News From Home | 35:07 | Read by BethAnne |
Loading for Home, Part 1 | 24:48 | Read by BethAnne |
Loading for Home, Part 2 | 34:34 | Read by BethAnne |
Homeward Bound | 32:29 | Read by BethAnne |
Bad Prospects, Part 1 | 29:18 | Read by BethAnne |
Bad Prospects, Part 2 | 30:58 | Read by BethAnne |
Doubling Cape Horn | 29:05 | Read by BethAnne |
Northward Ho! | 28:15 | Read by BethAnne |
Nearing Home | 20:55 | Read by BethAnne |
More Stirring Incidents | 24:43 | Read by BethAnne |
Hurrah for Yankee Land! | 24:29 | Read by BethAnne |
Original Concluding Chapter, Part 1 | 23:46 | Read by BethAnne |
Original Concluding Chapter, Part 2 | 25:20 | Read by BethAnne |
Epilogue, Part 1 | 30:47 | Read by BethAnne |
Epilogue, Part 2 | 27:48 | Read by TriciaG |
Epilogue Part 3 | 24:22 | Read by TriciaG |
Reviews
I feel as if I've been there
Fish sticks
All the descriptive detail leaves one feeling as if they were there. Daily journal entries highlight the unrelenting respect for authority required by everyman under the captain for survival. Day after day cowling and succumbing to unrelenting work schedules and lack of sleep.The shipmates supreme luxury being a full nights sleep. This book is true food for the soul for anyone with any salt in their blood. One can feel the excitement of the return home and the completion of the task. Conclusions and epilogues highlight the interest in returning to California shortly after and seeing tremendous change. Magnificent, worth the second read. Ahoy Dana, if you hear me, Bravo and thank you. The sticks
Zach s
I really liked her voice. She is smart and the story is great!. This story will explain everything that went on aboard a Sailing vessel back in the old days haha.
Excellent! We're not worthy, wonderful volunteers
Vivia
Thanks, most enjoyable addition to the archives!
Brian Cooper
The reader for the content of the book was overall great! However...when I came to the epilogue two and three, I was incensed to hear an AI voice reading. It will NEVER be able to replace a human. It has not the voice inflection nor emotion to be capable to do this!! Please do not allow this on your site. It is a dumbing down of humanity to allow this to go on.
Decent Recording
Eric Sillers
A compelling history, complete with contemporary social commentary, read with great spirit and good inflection. A few common English words are consistently mispronounced, the Latin could be a more clearly enunciated, but most of all the recording is a bit soft and the epilog needs to be revisited by the original reader (please!)
A Classic - and true - Sea Story
Dennis
A classic tale of life on a sailing ship from the perspective of a common seaman. Really really good. Although I initially questioned that such a work would be read by a woman, she was an excellent reader and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her. Well done...
A true classic. It hasn't lost any appeal in 180 years.
Twelve Winds
I don't get the bad reviews. BethAnne put a lot of effort into this reading including some dramatic reading of dialogue. A soothing voice and cute accent add to the enjoyment too. I would listen to it over again.
Judy
I concur that a male voice would lend more credibility to the story, as well as one who can read entire sentences instead of fragments. These distract from the amazing account of sailing a merchant vessel and requires the listener to constantly mentally connect and correct the spoken words.