hey David:
You've certainly been an active paticipant with almost 1,700 posts in that
amount of time. I just past my first year on the Big A in April. I wanted to
mention your subject title. Clever. using the title of that very
famous Classic era of sail volume, "Two Years Before the Mast".
I finally got around to reading it some yrs. ago. I remember that the
dust jacket text indicated that book did a lot to improve the
common seaman's life aboard ship, which was something lower
than a "mouse" in that era.
have a good day