Two Years Before the Mast · Chapter
XXXIV explained
The narrator describes a narrow escape from a falling yard, the crossing of the equator, encounters with other ships, and a dramatic thunderstorm with a corposant (St.
What happens
The narrator describes a narrow escape from a falling yard, the crossing of the equator, encounters with other ships, and a dramatic thunderstorm with a corposant (St. Elmo's fire) that terrifies the crew before clearing to a fine morning.
Themes in this chapter
Hardship and Endurance
The crew endures a terrifying thunderstorm with lightning and a corposant, yet must continue their duties and sleep when possible.
Isolation and Longing
The narrator notes that the first sail in nearly a hundred days brings a sociable sound, highlighting the profound isolation of the voyage.
Transformation and Identity
The narrator's matter-of-fact reaction to his near-fatal fall reflects the sailor's hardened identity, where escapes are joked about rather than mourned.
Characters to notice
- Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Narrowly escapes death when the fore topgallant yard falls after he steps off; later furls sails during the storm and observes the corposant.
- Mr. F⸺
The mate calls out to the narrator and the English lad to look at the corposant on the main topgallant masthead.
- Captain Thompson
Walks the deck during the tense calm before the thunderstorm, though it is too dark to see him clearly.
Key passages
“I had been aloft nearly all the afternoon, at work, standing for as much as an hour on the fore topgallant yard, which was hoisted up, and hung only by the tie; when, having got through my work, I balled up my yarns, took my serving board in my hand, laid hold deliberately of the topgallant rigging, took one foot from the yard, and was just lifting the other, when the tie parted, and down the yard fell.”
After working aloft for an hour on the fore topgallant yard, which was suspended only by a rope, I gathered my tools and began to descend. Just as I lifted my second foot off the yard, the rope broke and the yard crashed down.
Narrator's narrow escape from a fall of ninety to a hundred feet.
“The very yo-ho-ing of the sailors at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear.”
The sailors' calls as they worked the ropes felt welcoming and familiar after so long without seeing other people.
First encounter with another ship after nearly a hundred days at sea.
“We could hear the captain walking the deck, but it was too dark to see anything more than one’s hand before the face.”
The captain paced the deck, but the darkness was so thick that we could barely see our own hands.
The oppressive darkness before the thunderstorm.
“A ship is not often injured by lightning, for the electricity is separated by the great number of points she presents, and the quantity of iron which she has scattered in various parts.”
Ships are rarely struck by lightning because the many pointed objects and iron fittings disperse the electrical charge.
Explanation of why the ship survived the lightning storm.