We have previously discussed this work to some degree and that post is worth reviewing in reference to the below provided reading and/or audiobook.  This post will serve to flesh out some further details.  But keep in mind that there will be other posts in the coming year.

Dana began this journey after he was afflicted with measles while attending Harvard.  The goal was to help out his eye sight.  How and why being a sailor was thought useful in this endeavor, I do not quite follow.  Still, Dana enlisted as a common sailor aboard the brig Pilgrim and sailed around Cape Horn.  He then returned on a ship called the Alert.  The diary he kept on these voyages became Two Years Before the Mast.  In subsequent postings, we will begin an exploration of Dana’s life beyond this voyage.

Chapter 15 of Two Years Before the Mast may be read here:

http://www.bartleby.com/23/15.html

In the alternative, it may be listened to in an audiobook format here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWzK6a93Jf4&t=30s

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALISQ_VzR60&t=746s