Working the Waters

Colin Wintz

Working the Waters

Two Years Before the Mast

The success that emanates from Dana’s story is a result of Dana traveling through the class systems that are so often shrouded from public view. Dana was allowed a unique position to look upon the outside world by through the lens of a forgotten cog, the sailor. His past of a privilege granted him the sophistication of academia through an education from Harvard. Dana left Harvard his junior year in search of adventure and hoped to travel across Europe but was unable to afford it and in replacement decided to sail upon the brig The Pilgrim, a merchant vessel, around Cape Horn and north to California. In his journeys Dana’s educational background provided him a tool of communicating his experiences so eloquently to others as well as communicating to the Spanish colonies of California but aboard the Pilgrim his scholarship is rendered incompetent and the only aid he is capable of giving is his untrained and inexperienced labor. Throughout Dana’s travels though classes the routine and laborious life of a sailor is given a voice and a fresh interpretation. The life of a jack tar and a privileged scholar can easily be taken for granted but it is through the transition that both can be appreciated.

An attack of the measles affected Dana’s eyesight while attending Harvard and persuaded his desire to embark on this journey in hopes of alleviating the symptoms but Dana describes his decision to become a seaman as a multitude of reasons:

"I can hardly tell which predominated, a desire to cure my eyes, my love of adventure and the attraction of the novelty of a life before the mast, or anxiety to escape from the depressing situation of inactivity and dependence at home" (Dana x).

Although he set about to demystify the life of a sailor and expose the truly unbearable conditions that sailors persevere Dana was able to capture the romance that enshrouded the life of the sailor through his accounts

Dana commented that the words “Are not sailors very idle at sea?” were sputtered much too often by folks on land

The story that Dana produces is a product of a social disruption. His privileged life of academia  Living aboard a ship is living in a time capsule. The constant of time takes a different meaning and change becomes a immediate