A Sailor's Story
The term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors — in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. His writing evidences his later sympathy with the lower classes; he later became a prominent anti-slavery activist and helped found the Free Soil Party.
Dana did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.
Read more about this topic: Two Years Before The Mast
Famous quotes containing the words sailor and/or story:
“Captain Bligh: Mr. Byam, youre up late.
Byam: Its very warm below, sir.
Captain Bligh: I hadnt noticed it. A true sailor can sleep in an oven, if need be, or in a keg of ice.”
—Talbot Jennings (18961985)
“If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life. I mean people are going to say, Youre crazy. Plus theyre going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and thats a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.”
—Diane Arbus (19231971)