The film bears little resemblance to the novel

The novel is a rendering of the ship-board life in a cargo vessel plying along the rugged Spanish California coast, moving various freight up & down that coast, while accumulating (cow) hides for transport back to the eastern coast - no mutiny. Certainly a harsh life, but very interesting to anyone interested in what that life entailed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_hide_trade

audiobook :

https://librivox.org/two-years-before-the-mast-by-richard-henry-dana-jr/