Two Years Before the Mast · Chapter
Twenty-Four Years After explained
The narrator returns to California twenty-four years after his voyage on the Alert, reflecting on the dramatic transformation of San Francisco from a vast solitude into a bustling city of one hundred thousand inhabitants.
What happens
The narrator returns to California twenty-four years after his voyage on the Alert, reflecting on the dramatic transformation of San Francisco from a vast solitude into a bustling city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. He visits San Diego, finding it unchanged but nearly all his old acquaintances gone, and recounts the fates of former shipmates—French John, Mr. Richard Brown, Evans, Mr. Hatch, Sails, and Harry Bennett—as he grapples with the passage of time and the loss of the past.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Identity
The narrator contrasts the desolate, solitary San Francisco of 1835 with the bustling, illuminated city of 1859, and reflects on his own changed fortunes and identity.
Isolation and Longing
The narrator feels alone among the ruins of the past, searching for familiar faces and places, and is overcome by a sense of loss and nostalgia.
Labor and Economy
The shift from hide-droghing and small-scale trade to a global commercial hub is highlighted, along with the fates of sailors and workers like French John and Harry Bennett.
Cultural Encounter and Otherness
The narrator observes the disappearance of the Mexican gente de razón and the Kanakas, replaced by American settlers and a new economic order.
Characters to notice
- Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Returns to California after twenty-four years, reflecting on personal changes and the transformation of the landscape.
- John (French John)
Former seaman on the Alert, later a boatman; died and left no trace, mourned by Captain Faucon.
- Mr. Brown
Chief mate on the Alert; later commanded noble ships but died after falling into a ship's hold.
- Sails
Old boatswain's mate from the Alert; met again on a line-of-battle ship, remarried, living near the navy yard.
- Harry Bennett
Suffered palsy, left ashore when the Alert sailed; later helped into hospital, then set up a stall, eventually disappeared.
- Evans
Second mate on the Alert; no one liked him, later tried for petty tyranny, still a subaltern officer.
- Mr. Russell
Mentioned as one of the officers of the Alert who praised the crew; long ago a shipmaster.
- Captain Faucon
Captain of the Alert; spoke highly of the crew and mourned French John's death.
Key passages
“All, all were gone! not a vestige to mark where one hide house stood.”
Everything had disappeared without a trace, not even a sign of where the hide houses once stood.
The narrator's lament over the complete erasure of the past at San Diego.
“I alone was left of all, and how strangely was I here! What changes to me!”
I was the only one remaining from that time, and I marveled at how different my own life had become.
Reflection on personal transformation and solitude.
“The little town of San Diego has undergone no change whatever that I can see. It certainly has not grown.”
San Diego appeared exactly as it had been, with no signs of growth or development.
Contrast between the stagnation of San Diego and the boom of San Francisco.
“Vast banks of fog, invading us from the North Pacific, drove in through the entrance, and covered the whole bay;”
Thick fog from the North Pacific swept through the Golden Gate and blanketed the entire bay.
Description of the natural environment in 1835.
“a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. Clocks tolled the hour of midnight from its steeples, but the city was alive”
A city of a hundred thousand people, with church bells ringing midnight, yet still bustling with activity.
Vivid contrast between the past solitude and the vibrant modern city of 1859.
