书名：Two Years Before the Mast两年水手生涯

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1290L
作者：Jr. Richard Henry Dana
出版社名称：Signet Classics
出版时间：2009
语种：英文
ISBN：9780451531254
商品尺寸：10.7 x 2.7 x 17 cm
包装：简装
页数：432
Two Years Before the Mast《两年水手生涯》是很具代表性的航海游记，推动了美国乃至西方现代海事制度的改革。影响深远，其价值和趣味可与笛福巨著相媲美。

★囊括人类有史以来至19世纪优秀的社会科学和自然科学文献。
★向现代读者展示人类观察、记录、发明和思想演变的进程。
★人类史上重要和富有影响力的思想性读物。
★自1901年问世以来，畅销逾百年！
★每个西方家庭的珍贵藏书。
★西方学生接受古代和近代文明教育的读物。
Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast,Two Years Before the Mastis both a riveting story of adventure and the most eloquent, insightful account we have of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he abandons the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors, amid genuine danger. The result is an astonishing read, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain, terrible hardship and magical beauty, and fascinating historical detail, including an intriguing portrait of California before the gold rush. As D. H. Lawrence proclaimed, “Dana's small book is a very great book.”

Review
“Possesses... the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
理查德·亨利·达纳，美国作家、律师，生于马萨诸塞州坎布里奇。在哈佛大学读书时，曾作为一名普通水手航海绕过合恩角到达加利福尼亚，回来后作《两年水手生涯》一书，讲述自己的航海经历，生动地描述了水手们遭受的不公待遇，并帮助建立海事改革制度。第二年出版《海员的朋友》。这两本书都在英美两国再版，使其声名大噪。1840年开始在马萨诸塞从事律师业务，精通海洋法。

Jr. Richard Henry Dana,(1815-82) was a student at Harvard in 1833 when an attack of measles weakened his eves, forcing him to break off his studies. The following year he signed on as a common sailor aboard the brig Pilgrim: he made the voyage around Cape Horn to California, where he worked several months, and then shipped back to Boston aboard the Alert. His health restored, he returned to Harvard and, after his graduation, went on to study law. In 1840, he was admitted to the bar, just a short time before the publication ofTwo Years Before the Mast. This book enjoyed enormous success. However, it was to be Dana’s sole literary work of note, though his legal manual,The Seaman’s Friend, enjoyed wide popularity among sailors. Active in law and public affairs, Dana served as a delegate to the Free Soil Convention of 1848, appeared in several important cases defending fugitive slaves, and acted as one of the counsel for the United States in the trial of Jefferson Davis. Travel remained his passion; he was in Rome, in the midst of writing a work on law, when pneumonia ended his life.
The fourteenth of August was the day fixed upon for the sailing of the brig Pilgrim, on her voyage from Boston, round Cape Horn, to the Western coast of North America. As she was to get under way catty en the afternoon, I made my appearance on board at twelve o’clock, in full sea-rig, with my chest, containing an outfit for a two or three years’ voyage, which I had undertaken from a determination to cure, if possible, by an entire change of life, and by a long absence from books, with a plenty of hard work, plain food, and open air, a weakness of the eyes, which had obliged me to give up my studies, and which no medical aid seemed likely to remedy.

The change from the tight frock-coat, silk cap, and kid gloves of an undergraduate at Harvard, to the loose duck trousers, checked shirt, and tarpaulin hat of a sailor, though somewhat of a transformation, was soon made; and I supposed that I should pass very well for a Jack tar. But it is impossible to deceive the practised eye in these matters; and while I thought myself to be looking as salt as Neptune himself, I was, no doubt, known for a landsman by everyone on board as soon as I hove in sight. A sailor has a peculiar cut to his clothes, and a way of wearing them which a green hand can never get. The trousers, tight round the hips, and thence hanging long and loose round the feet. a superabundance of checked shirt, a low-crowned, well-varnished black hat, worn on the back of the head, with half a fathom of black ribbon hanging over the left eye, and a slip-tie to the black silk neckerchief, with sundry other minutiae, are signs, the want of which betrays the beginner at once. Besides the points in my dress which were out of the way, doubtless my complexion and hands were quite enough to distinguish me from the regular salt who, with a sunburnt cheek, wide step, and roiling gait, swings his bronzed and toughened hands athwart-ships. half opened, as though just ready to grasp a rope.
With all my imperfections on my head,” I joined the crew, and we hauled out into the stream, and came to anchor for the night. The next day we were employed in preparation for sea, reeving studding-sail gear, crossing royal yards, putting on chafing gear, and taking on board our powder. On the following night, I stood my first watch. I remained awake nearly all the first part of the night from fear that I might not hear when I was called; and when I went on deck, so great were my ideas of the importance of my trust, that I walked regularly fore and aft the whole length of the vessel, looking out over the bows and taffrail at each turn, and was not a little surprised at the coolness of the old seaman whom I called to take my place, in stowing himself snugly away under the long-boat for a nap. That was a sufficient lookout, he thought, for a fine night, at anchor in a safe harbor.
The next morning was Saturday, and, a breeze having sprung up from the southward, we took a pilot on board, hove up our anchor, and began beating down the bay. I took leave of those of my friends who came to see me off, and had barely opportunity for a last look at the city and well-known objects, as no time is allowed on board ship for sentiment. As we drew down into the lower harbor, we found the wind ahead in the bay, and were obliged to come to anchor in the roads. We remained there through the day and a part of the night. My watch began at eleven o’clock at night, and I received orders to call the captain if the wind came out from the westward. About midnight the wind became fair, and, having summoned the captain, I was ordered to call all hands. How I accomplished this, I do not know, but I am quite aware that I did not give the true hoarse boatswain call of A-a-I ha-a-a-nds up anchor, aho-oy!” in a short time everyone was in motion, the sails loosed, the yards braced, and we began to heave up the anchor, which was our last hold upon Yankee land. I could take but small part in these preparations. My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault. Unintelligible orders were so rapidly given, and so immediately executed; there was such a hurrying about, and such an intermingling of strange cries arid stranger actions, that I was completely bewildered. There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor’s life. At length those peculiar, long-drawn sounds which denote that the crew are heaving at the windlass began, and In a few minutes we were under way. The noise of the water thrown from the bows was heard, the vessel leaned over from the damp night- breeze, and rolled with the heavy groundswell, arid we had actually begun our long, long journey. This was literally bidding good night to my native land.