Two Years Before the Mast Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vision

While a student at Harvard, Dana contracted measles which led to a severe loss of eyesight, so necessary for a student. Dana turned down a leisurely voyage to India as an owner's agent, and instead signed on to a merchant ship on a voyage to collect a cargo of cow hides.

Answer: Common sailors

The less desirable quarters "before the mast" were given to the common sailors, the lowest-ranking members of the crew. The quarters in the forward part of sailing ships tended to be cramped due to the narrowing of the hull toward the bow, and were wet from spray and the sea pounding into the bow.

Answer: Pilgrim

The Pilgrim was an 85-foot long brig - a vessel that carries square sails on two masts. The Pilgrim was built in 1825 and was lost in 1856 due to a fire at sea.

Answer: Cape Horn

Cape Horn is located at 55 degrees South latitude at the tip of South America, approximately 500 miles from Antarctica. Dana's return voyage around Cape Horn in the brig Alert took many weeks of sailing in high winds and seas and freezing temperatures.

Answer: Los Angeles

At the time of Dana's visit, Los Angeles had less than 1,000 inhabitants spread over an area of 5 1/2 square miles, but it was still the largest settlement in the territory of Alta California.

Answer: Sandwich Islands (Hawaii)

Native Hawaiians then and now refer to themselves as Kanakas. Dana befriended many Kanakas ashore, and solidified his connection with them by nursing one back to health against the wishes of his Captain, who would just as soon have seen the Kanaka die.

Answer: Herman Melville

Herman Melville mentions his predecessor in "White Jacket": "But if you want the best idea of Cape Horn, get my friend Dana's unmatchable "Two Years Before the Mast". But you can read, and so you must have read it. His chapters describing Cape Horn must have been written with an icicle."

Answer: California Gold Rush

The Gold Rush of 1848 lasted through 1855 and brought over 300,000 people to the new State (admitted 1850). San Francisco was a village of 200 in 1846, but had exploded to a boomtown of 36,000 by 1852. In 1859, Dana toured many familiar locations and met many acquaintances from his 1835 visit.

Answer: Flogging

Flogging was on the wane by the time of Dana's voyage, after having reached a peak during the American Revolution when a maximum of 100 lashes were permitted. Vivid descriptions of flogging by Dana and Melville did much to sway public opinion, and flogging was outlawed on U.S. ships in 1850 (it continued as a punishment in the Army until 1861).

Answer: Richard H. Dana III

The original author, R.H. Dana Jr., died in 1882. His son, R.H. Dana III, published the last edition of his father's book in 1911, adding a chapter on nautical terms, and some history of the ships and people mentioned in his father's work as well as an update on the state of California in a new chapter titled "Seventy Five Years After".