Two Years Before the Mast. Richard Henry Dana

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      Bibliographical References

      The author's life is fully and sympathetically treated in Charles Francis Adams's Richard Henry Dana. Boston, 1890.

      The most exhaustive history of California and the Pacific coast in general is H. H. Bancroft's History of the Pacific States of North America. San Francisco, 1882–1888. A briefer work is Josiah Royce's California. Boston, 1886. Though this book considers mainly the transition period, 1846–1856, its introduction gives an excellent survey of earlier years. F. J. Turner's Rise of the New West, which is volume XIV of the American Nation, New York, 1907, tells the story of the development of the whole territory west of the Mississippi.

      Those who are curious to search out all the items of ship construction will find them adequately illustrated, under the caption, "ship," in both Standard and Century dictionaries.

      Explanation of Diagram

      The following diagram, from which many details have been omitted, presents sufficient data for an understanding of the more important nautical terms which occur in the text. A number of other such terms have been explained in the notes. In omitting reference to many more, the editor has felt that ovarannotation would turn a straightforward and interesting narrative into a mere excuse for a nautical dictionary, and quite defeat the purpose of the book. The author's technical vocabulary, even when most bewildering, serves to give force and the vividness of local color to his descriptions. To pause in the midst of a storm at sea for comment and definition would result merely in checking the movement of the story and putting a damper upon the imagination.

      Two Years before the Mast affords the teacher a somewhat unusual opportunity. Few literary works are better calculated to stimulate inquiry into the remarkable changes which three-quarters of a century have wrought in the United States. Much profitable class employment in the drawing of maps and the writing of brief themes dealing with various phases of the romantic history of California will suggest itself. The numerous geographical allusions should be traced with the aid of an atlas.

      | --+--

       --+-- | |j|

       /| | --+--

       / |f| | |i|

       / +-- ---+---

       / /|e| | | |

       / / +--- | | h|

       / / | | ----+----

       /a / |d | | | |

       /__/ b +---- | | g |

       / /_____|c | \__|____\

       /__/ |___| |

       \------+----------+-------

       \_______________________/

      a. Flying jib.

       b. Jib.

       c. Foresail.

       d. Foretopsail.

       e. Foretopgallantsail.

       f. Foreroyal.

       g. Mainsail.

       h. Maintopsail.

       i. Maintopgallantsail.

       j. Mainroyal.