Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882) was an American lawyer and politician who wrote the classic American memoir Two Years Before the Mast.
He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and studied in Cambridgeport, then a private school, before enrolling at Harvard College, where he contracted measles leading to ophthalmia. He decided on a sea voyage to improve his health and enlisted as a merchant seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim in Boston, bound for California, where he was reassigned to the Alert for the return trip around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter. These voyages were detailed in his book which was mentioned by Herman Melville in his work White-Jacket.
On his return Dana enrolled at what is now Harvard Law School, graduating in 1837 before being admitted to the bar in 1840. He specialised in maritime law. In 1841 he published The Seaman's Friend, which became a standard reference on the legal rights and responsibilities of sailors. He defended many common seamen in court.
During the American Civil War, Dana served as a United States Attorney, and, in the Prize Cases, successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the U.S. president had the power under the U.S. Constitution to blockade Confederate ports.
AOS Other Non-Fiction |
||
| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| Two Years Before the Mast | A merchant seaman's memoir | |