Rating: 
Summary: Underrated classic
Review: After finishing this book, I am amazed that this book is not more prominent in famous literature. Much of US and Sailing history can be learned through this true firsthand account of a Harvard student gone temporary salty dog. I am not from California or even the west coast but still found the stories contained throughout the book fascinating. Dana did an excellent job of describing the life at sea in the early 1800's without a moment of boring reading. I would recommend (and have been recommending) this book to anyone and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Carry me back to the olden days...
Review: Another classic called so with reason. Surprisingly, Dana was a lawyer; the surprise is because his prose is as clear and simple as can be. Every word is in place, nothing rings false or more complex than it need, as he tells the story of something over two years he spent, after Harvard, on a hide ship going from Boston to California and back. The majority of the time was spent up and down the coast of California, gathering some forty thousand hides ~ cattle, as i understand it ~ for the leather trade back in New England. As Dana tells this part of his tale one begins to feel the boredom he felt, the drag of doing the same thing, day after day after day; but also, the excitement of a liberty day, the pleasure of the break in routine when the hides are processed and the ship has not returned with more. The more exciting parrt of the story is, naturally, the descriptions of sailing, around the Horn, through storms, furling, reefing, climbing riggings, standing on yardarms, and all the duties a sail sailor had. In this day of fuel oil, steam, and nuclear power it would be nice to see a publisher re-issue this book with a diagram of a fully rigged sailing ship and a glossary that explains the difference between a reef and a double reef, and just what an hermaphrodite brig is. There are those who still know, but they are specialists nowadays; that information used to be as common knowledge as the difference between a bus and a truck is now. Still, a wonderful experience is hidden between the covers of this book.
Rating:
Summary: A real sense of life at sea.
Review: As a sailor myself I found it amazing that the on-board jargon and terminology is the same today as it was back in Dana's day. This account gives a very real feel for what it is like to be on board any large sailing ship, the sheer physical grind, how you compete with your mates to climb the rigging just to break the boredom, the unreasonable delight with getting a stodgy suet pudding and molasses which you would turn your nose up to on land. The other half of this book is the historical perspective on california when San Francisco was a station and when all of the West was Spanish. It is a unique account of California before the arrival of the railroad. It is pure serendipity that a man of Dana's education served as an ordinary seaman and was able to pen this unique account of life at sea. A must for all students of sail trading and for a view of early california.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding tale of courage and character.
Review: Dana has a keen eye for detail and character, and tells his tale in a straightforward way that makes you feel that you are there with him experiencing what he does. I like to imagine what it was like to read this in 1840, when California was a distant and exotic land not much more accessible than the far side of the moon is to us.What seems almost inconceivable to us is the danger, discomfort and indignities the common sailors of the 1830s. They were often swept off the deck in high seas or fell from the rigging at night. Dana describes having to climb out on icy spars to struggle bare-handed with frozen ropes during a storm tossed winter crossing of Cape. And for that they were legally not much better than slaves who could be whipped at the masters whim. Of course there is Dana. While this autobiographical tale is not in the least self-serving, he unconsciously paints a picture of himself as an adventurous but sensitive young man, who, despite his education and class, which in most cases would have put him far over the master of the ship, never thinks himself above his mates or his duty.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, prescient look at early California. An adventure!
Review: Dana is a young Harvard man on two year sabbatical in his junior year, 1835. What to do? He signs on as a hand on a California bound trader. This is the stuff of a real Hollywood movie. Dana was like d'Tocqueville, but for the West. Read it and relive real life of the time.
Rating:
Summary: A great American literary voice
Review: Dana's chronicle is utterly remarkable for its force, its clarity and its authenticity. This is no hammed up memoir but a straightforward account of early nineteenth century sea and frontier life, couched in some of the best American writing ever.
Rating:
Summary: Dana's clasic work is a must-read for nautical historians
Review: Dana's classic work is a must-read for any serious student of 19th century nautical history, and also for anyone interested in the early history of California. Dana, who after returning from his two-year voyage became a celebrated lawyer and politician, considered this work to be a boyish story. To historians, however, it stands as his most enduring work. I am now reading it for the third time, and it delights as it did during the first reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the worst book
Review: don't listen to any of these people, this book is the boringest book you'll ever read. unless you are really interested in ship duties and sailing i highly DO NOT recommend this book!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Material - Excellent // Publisher - not recommended
Review: I agree whole-heartedly with reader Matt Leo's enthusiastic review of the book. However, I have a problem with this paperback edition. In the back of the book is a diagram of a sailing ship with all the rigging described -- an important featrue, as the names of the various components of the rigging are constantly refered to in the text. But the diagram is blurred to the point that it is difficult to impossible to read the descriptions of the components. Amazon should not offer this publisher's product because of this defect.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Escape From today's woes
Review: I am rereading this book for the third time and now realise why - it is a great way to escape today's world and relive a time which will never be repeated when plains mountains and valleys were mysterious places full of adventure because they were totally unknown uncharted and uninhabited. The wold has changed to the extent that we seldom enjoy our natural environment and are locked into the digital revolution with all its quick fixes. This book is a great description of what life was like at that time and is a classic.
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