Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (
August 1,
1815 -
January 6,
1882) was an
American lawyer and
politician, and author of the book
Two Years Before the Mast.
He was born into one of the first families of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, grandson of
Francis Dana and attended
Harvard College. Having trouble with his vision after a bout of the
measles, he thought a voyage might help his failing sight. Rather than going on a
Grand Tour of Europe, in
1834 he left Harvard to enlist as a common
sailor on a voyage around
Cape Horn to the then-remote (and owned by
Mexico)
California. He set sail on the brig
Pilgrim (180 tons, 86.5 feet long), visited a number of settlements in California (including
Monterey,
San Pedro,
San Diego,
Santa Barbara, and
Santa Clara), and returned to
Massachusetts two years later as a deckhand on the Indiaman
Alert, after making a winter passage around Cape Horn. He set foot back in Boston in September 1836.
He kept a
diary, and after the trip wrote
Two Years Before the Mast based on his experiences. The term "before the mast" refers to sailor's quarters -- in the
forecastle, in the front of the ship, the officers dwelling near the stern. His writing evidences his later social feeling for the oppressed.
After his sea voyage, he returned to Harvard, completing his education in 1837. He subsequently became a lawyer, and an expert on
maritime law, many times defending common seamen. Later he became a prominent
abolitionist, helping to found the anti-
slavery Free Soil Party in
1848. In 1859 Dana visited
Cuba while its annexation was being debated in the
U.S. Senate. He visited
Havana, a sugar plantation, a bullfight, and various chuches, hospitals, schools, and prisons, a trip documented in his book
To Cuba and Back.
During the
American Civil War, Dana served as
United States District Attorney, and successfully argued before the
Supreme Court that the United States Government could rightfully blockade
Confederate ports. From 1867-1868 Dana was a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and also served as a U.S. counsel in the trial of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis. In 1876, his nomination as ambassador to
Britain was defeated in the Senate by political enemies, partly because of a lawsuit for plagiarism brought against him for a legal textbook he had edited.
Dana died of influenza in
Rome, and is buried in that city's
Protestant Cemetery.
His son, Richard Henry Dana III, married Edith Longfellow, daughter of
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The point and city of
Dana Point, California, located on the
Pacific coast about halfway between
Los Angeles and
San Diego, is named for him.
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Two Years Before the Mast, 1840; 1869 revision by Dana; 1911 revision by his son
Free typeset PDF ebook of Two Years Before the Mast optimized for printing at home*
The Seaman's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship, with Plates; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners, 1841
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Cruelty to seamen: being the case of Nichols & Couch [date unknown]
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An autobiographical sketch, 1815-1842
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To Cuba and back, 1859
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Journal of a Voyage Round the World, 1859-1860
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Twenty-Four Years After, 1869; now generally included in
Two Years Before the Mast*
The journal, Robert F. Lucid, editor. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968
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Free ebook of Richard Henry Dana at
Project Gutenberg
