First-person account, life on a ship in the 1970s/1980s in New England/eastern Canada

[Ann-Grace]

Nonfiction, written in a daily, diary format over the span of a year or two; published in the late 1970 or 1980s; written by a (young) man, I remember he attended the Harvard Kennedy School. He's a novice, has never sailed before, but joins the crew of a 'tall' ship, or at least, an old-fashioned sailing ship that leaves from Boston, sails north through the Grand Banks, to Newfoundland and St. Johns.... not too long, less than 400 pages. I picked this book out of a friends library of travel/adventure/wilderness books (Barry Lopez, Jon Krakauer, etc.)

If you have any ideas, THANK YOU in advance..! I've been searching online for days for this title -- it's a fabulous little book.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthrea...

Read through this forum.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Except for the fact that it's 140 years later, it sounds very much like Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea, which was also a memoir by a young Harvard student (undergrad, not Kennedy School) who was a sailing novice, set out to crew on a tall ship, except his route was around Cape Horn and up to the California coast, the purpose being to return with a cargo of hides. Obviously not your book, but maybe your author was inspired by Richard Henry Dana Jr.

[Ann-Grace]

Cool. Thank you for your comments, Lobstergirl! I will check out the books mentioned in that forum.

Yes, in trying to determine the title of this book, I learned about "Two Years Before the Mast" -- the parallels are definitelyy there. Perhaps my book's mystery author was inspired by Dana's adventure... in any case, now I have another (good) book to read.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ann-Grace, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Ann-Grace, are you still looking for this or did you find it?"

No response in 2 years. Moving to Abandoned.