Dana was a Harvard student whose eyes gave out, so in 1834 he shipped out of Boston as a common sailor rather than a passenger, rounded the Horn, and spent two years working the hide trade on the California coast when California was still Mexican and San Francisco was a few buildings. He describes the work exactly — curing hides, the ports, floggings he witnessed and could do nothing about — and published it in 1840 partly as an argument for sailors’ rights. It’s the first honest account of the sea from below decks, and the closest thing we have to a photograph of pre-Gold Rush California. Dana Point is named for him.
Two Years Before the Mast