An Old Sailor’s Yarns

An Old Sailor’s Yarns collects sea tales by Nathaniel Ames (1796-1835), the American sailor-author whose memoirs of life before the mast came a decade before Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast and helped open the genre. Ames went to sea as a young man and wrote of the forecastle, foreign ports, and the rough life of the early American merchant marine with first-hand salt. His books are among the earliest authentic American sea narratives. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.