For the duration of the voyage to the elusive California coast, Richard Henry Dana was nineteen years old, working as a sailor aboard the Pilgram, engaged in the hide and tallow trade. Dana was an elite member of the upper class. As a student at Harvard, he became infected with a case of the measles that left him with a painful eye condition. Dana then began his career at sea as a sailor and set off from Boston around Cape Horn to the coast of California. Throughout his voyage, Dana kept a journal of his sixteen month adventure.
In 1840, Dana's Two Years Before the Mast was published,…