Character guide

Richard Henry Dana Jr.

major

Also known as I, me, my, mine, myself

Dana is the educated son of a Boston family who signs aboard the Pilgrim as a common sailor, sharing forecastle bunks with the men he might otherwise have commanded. His double vision — gentleman's eye and sailor's hands — is the book's central tension, letting him measure the brutal distance between maritime law and maritime life. Every rope he learns to coil and every flogging he witnesses sharpens the reformer he will become.

Captain Thompson

major

Also known as the captain, Captain T⸺

Thompson commands the Pilgrim with the conviction that a ship needs one voice and one fist, and he exercises both without apology. Dana grants him the logic of necessity — emergencies demand instant power — yet shows how easily that power curdles into petty tyranny over men who cannot answer back. His clashes with the crew set the moral weather for the whole voyage.

Tom Harris

supporting

Also known as Tom, Harris

Harris is the sailor next to Dana in age, experience, and standing in the watch, a natural raconteur whose tall tales keep the crew awake and laughing. He embodies the forecastle's rough camaraderie — the humor and shared misery that bind men who have no other comfort. Through him Dana learns that seamanship is passed down by voice as much as by rope.

Mr. F⸺

supporting

Also known as F⸺

Mr. F⸺ rules the deck with clenched fists and a voice built to annihilate, greeting even respectful grievances with oaths and threats of hazing. When the crew petitions for redress, he drives them forward and makes the 'down east johnnycake' a byword for the voyage's souring mood. His contempt for the men poisons the ship's peace long after the immediate quarrel blows over.

John (French John)

supporting

Also known as French John

John is the forecastle's senior hand, respected for seamanship and trusted to settle disputes, though Dana notes he is also the most ignorant man in the ship. When the cook's superstitions about Finns and headwinds need an authority, John supplies one with confident nonsense. He represents the gap between skill and understanding that Dana must navigate as the educated newcomer.

Mr. Russell

supporting

Also known as Russell

Russell's arc from petty California grandee to mud-caked fugitive is one of the book's sharpest reversals, a lesson in how quickly authority dissolves on a lawless coast. Dana encounters him twice — first as the imperious 'Maestro de la casa,' then as a desperate man who has neither eaten nor slept in three days. His fall shadows the crew's own precarious standing between ship's discipline and shore's anarchy.

George Ballmer

supporting

Also known as George

George Ballmer is a boy before the mast, one of the youngest and least regarded members of the Pilgrim's crew, until a brutal fight with a fellow sailor named Nat transforms his standing. Cowed at first by the ship's hierarchy, he discovers that courage under blows can buy a kind of freedom the captain's authority cannot take away. His scrap becomes a small legend forward, and the lesson it teaches — that pluck matters more than rank — quietly shapes how the crew sees itself.

Captain Faucon

supporting

Also known as Faucon

Captain Faucon commands the Ayacucho, one of the American vessels trading hides along the California coast, and his reputation for decency sets him apart from the Pilgrim's harsher regime. Where other captains rule by fear, Faucon earns loyalty through steady, humane treatment of his men, a contrast Dana returns to when weighing what shipboard power ought to be. His presence in the narrative gives the reader a measure for judging the abuses elsewhere — proof that the system need not produce tyrants.

Nicholas

supporting

Nicholas is a Hawaiian sailor Dana meets curing hides at San Diego, a man so vast that no pair of shoes in California fits him and so seasoned that he has sailed on merchantmen, men-of-war, privateers, and worse. Illiterate but shrewd, he respects Dana's education and predicts, half-jokingly, that the young Bostonian will one day command a ship and haze him in turn. Their alliance keeps the officer in check, and Nicholas's strange, hard history gives Dana a window into the wider, rougher world of the forecastle.

Johnny Shark

supporting

Also known as Jack, Johnny

Johnny Shark, sometimes called Jack, is one of the Sandwich Islanders who sign on to American vessels along the California coast, filling the places of men who have gone ashore or deserted. He spins tall tales no one believes and no one minds, since the telling itself is the point, and his man-of-war slang and salt phrases leaven the monotony of hide-curing and watch-standing. He belongs to the polyglot, makeshift community of the forecastle — Hawaiians, Americans, Englishmen, a Frenchman, a Swede — that Dana comes to know as his real shipmates.

Don Juan Bandini

supporting

Also known as Don Juan, Bandini, The Don

Don Juan Bandini is the son of a former Mexican governor, educated in the best society of the capital and now reduced to taking passage on the Pilgrim because he cannot pay for it. Graceful, well-spoken, and proud, he dances and waltzes beautifully while a coarse Yankee trader named his fellow passenger fattens on mortgages against the Bandini lands. Dana pities him — a man of high birth and no occupation, keeping up appearances before half-naked Indian boys — and his plight becomes a quiet emblem of California's old order giving way to American commerce.

Mr. S⸺

supporting

Also known as S⸺

Mr. S⸺ serves as third mate aboard the Pilgrim, one of the officers who must enforce discipline on a crew worn down by months of hide-curing and hard weather. He is disliked by the men, yet he is also young, learning his trade, and answerable to a captain whose rages spare no one — a position that leaves him exposed from both directions. In the brutal, sail-carrying run home, with scurvy spreading and the captain pressing for speed, the third mate's precarious standing dramatizes how the ship's hierarchy grinds down officers and seamen alike.

George P. Marsh

supporting

Also known as George Marsh

Marsh is one of the common run of sailors in the Pilgrim's watch, a man whose improbable yarns are spun purely for amusement and never meant to be believed. His humor and easy command of sailor's salt phrases make him a natural center of gravity in the forecastle, easing the harshness of shipboard life. For the narrator, he becomes a steady companion whose friendship helps transform a green hand into a sailor.

Foster

minor

Also known as Poor Foster

An unlucky sailor on the Pilgrim, often the butt of jokes.

Sam

supporting

Also known as Uncle Sam

Sam is a veteran hand whose years at sea earn him the crew's quiet respect, but neither experience nor standing protects him when the captain orders him seized up against the shrouds. The narrator, who has eaten and lived beside him for months, watches in sickened fury as the rope falls, realizing that resistance means mutiny and mutiny means piracy. Sam's suffering crystallizes the book's central outrage: the law offers a sailor submission or nothing.

Old Wilson

supporting

Also known as Wilson, Captain Wilson

Old Wilson commands the Ayacucho, a sharp-bowed vessel whose crew's sudden activity warns the narrator's ship of a coming southeaster. His long experience on the coast has taught him to read the signs, and his decision to slip anchor and stand out to sea becomes a lesson in seamanship for the watching narrator. He embodies the seasoned, competent sailor the young Dana hopes to become.

Mr. Brown

minor

Also known as Mr. Richard Brown

A passenger on the Pilgrim, traveling to California for business.

Nat Ames

supporting

Also known as Nathaniel Ames

Nat Ames is one of the Boston boys just out of the public schools who signs aboard the Pilgrim, sharing the forecastle with the narrator and the rest of the crew. Like Dana, he is green to square-rigged life, learning his station at the braces and his place in the watch. His presence alongside the narrator gives the early voyage a sense of shared initiation, two landsmen becoming sailors together.

Chips

minor

Also known as Poor Chips

The ship's carpenter on the Pilgrim, a skilled but quiet man.

Ben (English Ben)

minor

Also known as English Ben

An English sailor on the Pilgrim, known for his strength.

Jack (of the Lagoda)

minor

Also known as Johnny, Lagoda Jack

A sailor from the ship Lagoda, met in San Diego.

Captain Nye

minor

Also known as Nye

Captain of the Loriotte, a small trading vessel.

Captain Job Terry

minor

Also known as Job Terry, Captain Terry

Captain of a whaling ship, met in the Pacific.

Mr. Bingham

minor

Also known as Old Mr. Bingham

A missionary in the Sandwich Islands, met briefly.

Sails

minor

The sailmaker on the Pilgrim, an old and experienced hand.

Bill Jackson

minor

Also known as Bill, Jackson, Old Bill

A sailor on the Pilgrim, known for his rough humor.

Mr. N⸺

minor

A passenger on the Pilgrim, a businessman from Boston.

Harry Bennett

minor

Also known as Bennett

A young sailor on the Pilgrim, a friend of the narrator.

Harry Bluff

minor

Also known as Harris

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a young and eager crewman.

Mr. R⸺

minor

A passenger on the Pilgrim, a businessman.

Tom Davis

minor

Also known as Tom

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a steady and reliable hand.

Bess

minor

A Hawaiian woman, wife of a sailor, living in California.

Old Schmidt

minor

Also known as Schmidt

An old German sailor on the Pilgrim, a skilled rigger.

Hope

minor

Also known as Poor Hope

A Hawaiian sailor who dies during the voyage.

John Gilpin

minor

Also known as John

A sailor on the Pilgrim, known for his singing.

Captain Arthur

minor

Captain of a ship met in San Francisco.

Jack Crosstree

minor

Also known as Jack

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a tough and experienced hand.

Neptune

minor

The ship's dog on the Pilgrim, a beloved mascot.

Mr. Mannini

minor

A Sandwich Islander who serves as an interpreter.

Welly

minor

A Hawaiian sailor on the Pilgrim, a quiet and hard worker.

Rosa

minor

A ship met in California, mentioned in passing.

Donna Angustia

minor

Also known as Doña Augustia

A Californio woman, wife of Don Juan Bandini.

John Yount

minor

A sailor on the Pilgrim, known for his strength.

Captain Low

minor

Captain of a ship trading along the California coast.

Mr. Robinson

minor

Also known as Mr. Alfred Robinson

A passenger on the Pilgrim, a merchant from Boston.

Jim Hall

minor

Also known as Jim

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a friend of the narrator.

Captain Bradshaw

minor

Also known as Bradshaw

Captain of a ship met in San Diego.

Don Pablo de la Guerra

minor

A Californio official and ranchero.

Henry Mellus

minor

A sailor on the Pilgrim, later a merchant in California.

Tom Cringle

minor

Also known as Tom

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a young and lively hand.

Don Andres

minor

A Californio ranchero, friend of Don Juan Bandini.

Evans

minor

A sailor on the Pilgrim, a quiet and reliable hand.