A true story of the battered life of a foremast crewman, Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana's classic travel narrative, which inspired canonical works such as Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As Rod Scher follows Dana (the Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America, he annotates Dana's tale with critiques, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Dana's time.

Two Years Before the Mast is a classic travel narrative which inspired canonical works like Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As he follows Richard Henry Dana Jr. (a Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America (encountering racial injustices and struggling through the battered life of a foremast crewman), Rod Scher annotates his tale with critiques, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Dana's time.