This book has been released under the following alternate titles:-
Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An untold maritime history
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways and Sailors' Wives
|
This book also examines the myths associated with women and water : the legends of sirens and mermaids, and the ambivalent attitude of sailors who thought a woman on board brought bad luck but prayed to the Virgin Mary to deliver them from storms and shipwreck. |
For centuries the sea has been regarded as a male domain, but women have always played a part in maritime life. The author's researches in the archives of Britain and America reveal that a surprising number of women went to sea dressed in men's clothes and worked alongside the sailors for months and sometimes years on end. There were seafaring heroines like Mary Patten who, aged 19 and pregnant, took command of a clipper ship around Cape Horn when her husband fell ill; there were the lighthouse heroines Grace Darling and Ida Lewis, both of whom carried out dramatic rescues in storm conditions; and there were the women who were smuggled aboard by sailors, and the prostitutes on the waterfront.|
Author: David Cordingly Title: Heroines and Harlots: Women at Sea in the Great Age of Sail Series: n/a First Published by: Macmillan Place: UK Format: HC Date: 22 May 2001 ISBN-10: 0333763734 ISBN-13: 9780333763735 |
  |