In 1834 a well-bred Harvard undergraduate from one of New England's most prominent literary families decided to leave that hallowed college for an extended voyage as a common sailor on a merchantman bound for Cape Horn and the nearly unknown California coast. It detracts not at all from his decision to note that he was forced to leave Harvard because of the weakness of his eyes. The young man's harrowing experiences on the high seas and grueling labor curing hides for export back to America resulted in his masterful Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (1840), a huge best-seller that was simultaneously a travel guidebook, a coming-of-age story, a realistic account of the day-to-day activities of merchant seamen, and a symbolic depiction of the death and rebirth of the tale's protagonist and narrator, Richard Henry Dana Jr.

While Dana was subsequently unable to match...