<p>In 'Ned Myers, or, a Life Before the Mast', James Fenimore Cooper breaks away from the frontier and Native American themes dominant in his Leatherstocking Tales to traverse a different landscape ? the vast, unpredictable ocean. The narrative follows the true account of an American sailor, Ned Myers, as relayed to Cooper, his childhood friend. As much a testament to the tumultuous life of a 19th-century seaman as it is a carefully detailed hist...