I'm reading Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana's classic account of signing on as a sailor on a merchant ship for a trip from Boston around the Horn to California and back in the 1830s; it's terrific. I'm so regretful when I think of how my father loved this book and the Patrick O'Brian books (he did his service in the Coast Guard) and I dismissed them as not of interest to me. I'd love to share them with him now.
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