Two Years Before the Mast · Chapter
XXXVI explained
The narrator describes the final approach to Boston, the mixed emotions of returning home after a long voyage, the foggy passage through soundings, and the preparations for leaving the ship.
What happens
The narrator describes the final approach to Boston, the mixed emotions of returning home after a long voyage, the foggy passage through soundings, and the preparations for leaving the ship.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Longing
The narrator experiences a paradoxical apathy upon nearing home, contrasting with the intense longing felt during the voyage.
Transformation and Identity
The crew discards their worn-out sea clothes and gear, symbolizing a transition from sailor to landsman.
Characters to notice
- Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Reflects on his apathy upon nearing home, then becomes active as the ship prepares to dock.
- Tom Harris
Jokes about going ashore and quitting the sea.
- Bill Jackson
Plays along with the banter about future plans.
- Jack (of the Lagoda)
Agrees with everything in the cheerful conversation before arrival.
Key passages
“A year before, while carrying hides on the coast, the assurance that in a twelvemonth we should see Boston, made me half wild; but now that I was actually there, and in sight of home, the emotions which I had so long anticipated feeling, I did not find, and in their place was a state of very nearly entire apathy.”
A year ago, the mere thought of returning to Boston in twelve months drove me wild with excitement, yet now that I am here and can see home, I feel almost nothing—just a strange indifference.
The narrator reflects on the anticlimax of achieving a long-desired goal.
“Away went the woollen caps in which we had carried hides upon our heads, for sixteen months, on the coast of California; the duck frocks, for tarring down rigging; and the worn-out and darned mittens and patched woollen trousers which had stood the tug of Cape Horn.”
We threw overboard the wool caps we'd worn while carrying hides in California, the canvas jackets used for tarring rigging, and the patched mittens and trousers that had survived Cape Horn.
The crew discards the physical remnants of their arduous voyage.