Steve Johnson, Pirate Artist

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.

Category: File - :Brig Pilgrim Dana Point Harbor 20081028.jpg|thumb|Brig Pilgrim

The Pilgrim was a sailing brig (180 tons, 86.5 feet long) engaged in the California hide trade of the early 19th century. Although just one among many other ships engaged in the business, the Pilgrim was immortalized by one of her sailors, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., who wrote the classic account Two Years Before the Mast about its 1834 voyage between Boston and California.

The Pilgrim was built in 1825 for Boston owners Bryant, Sturgis & Co., and went down in a fire at sea in 1856.

The Kalmar Nyckel (Key of Kalmar) was a Dutch built armed merchant ship noted for carrying Swedish settlers in 1638 to establish the colony of New Sweden. A re-creation of the ship was launched in Wilmington, Delaware in 1997.

The twin brigantines Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson are the flagships of the Los Angeles Maritime Institute's (LAMI) TopSail Youth program, a non-profit organization created as a character building organization to help at risk youth prepare for life through the discipline and teamwork required to safely handle a tall ship. They join LAMI's topsail schooners the Swift of Ipswich and the Bill of Rights in introducing youths to the subtle but profound influence presented by the sea.

Named for sail training pioneers Irving and Electa "Exy" Johnson, the brigantines take on a proud history initiated by their namesakes. Seven time veteran circumnavigators of the world on board two different boats both named Yankee, each trip with a new crew of boys and girls armed only with a sense of adventure and curiosity. For 25 years beginning in the late 1930s, Irving and Exy did what was thought impossible, and lived a life now le...