*Two Years Before the Mast

Two Years Before the Mast -Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
A Harvard Classic from a Harvard graduate. Blown about by the torrential Southeaster. Lackadaisy, dropsical academia discarded for two years to become the regular “salt.” Much, as pointed out in the introduction, as Roosevelt left Yale for a few seasons to rough it as a cowhand in Wyoming. Dana’s prose is proper, yet still inspired, full of sailoreese, and an obvious precursor to Melville. I enjoyed it, a good little adventure, but didn’t finish it as it seemed not to course out of its regular, stormy direction.
The Philadelphia Catechism:
“Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh, holystone the decks and scrape the cable.”