Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History"The fall of 1856 was one of the worst seasons that sailors off the coast of Cape Horn had ever seen. The clipper ship Neptune's Car, a trading vessel from New York, had battled huge waves and gale-force winds for weeks. Desperate to save his men and cargo from the violent storm, Captain Joshua Patten spent eight sleepless days and nights on deck. On the ninth day at the helm, he collapsed with a raging fever, and his crew panicked. As freezing rain and wind howled through the rigging and death seemed imminent, just one person on board stepped forward to take control of the ship: Captain Patten's nineteen-year-old wife, Mary, then five months' pregnant with their first child. When the ship safely reached its destination of San Franciso that November, Mary Patten was hailed as a national heroine." "What was a young woman doing on board a clipper ship in 1856? And how could she have been skilled enough to navigate a 216-foot vessel through a storm? Maritime history is rich with tales of male adventurers, sailors, captains, and pirates. In fact, we think of the high seas as an all-male world. But what about women? Were wives and daughters left ashore, relegated to a landlubber's existence?" "To answer these questions, maritime scholar David Cordingly has written an inspired, illuminating, and highly readable book that reveals the vibrant history of women and the sea. Drawing on years of research into the journals, ship's logs, and diaries of extraordinary women like Mary Patten, Cordingly has resurrected the incredible stories of a forgotten population. He re-creates a time when captain's wives shared Christmas dinners in Tahitian harbors, and when one Hannah Snell served aboard a British naval ship for four years without revealing her identity as a woman."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Women on the Waterfront | 3 |
The Sailors Farewell | 23 |
Ann Parker and the Mutiny at the Nore | 36 |
Copyright | |
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Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History David Cordingly No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Admiral Admiralty adventures American anchor Anne Bonny ashore battle became boat British brothels cabin Captain captured coast command crew Darling daughter deck died dressed Emma father female sailors figureheads fishing fleet French frigate George girls Grace Darling guns Hannah Snell harbor headed Hervey husband Ibid Ida Lewis island John Paul Jones joined Jones journal keeper Lady Hamilton later letters Lieutenant lighthouse lived London looked Lucy Brewer marine married Mary Anne Talbot Mary Patten Mary Read mast mate merchant ships mermaid mother muster book mutiny naval Nelson Nore o'clock officers pirates port Portsmouth press gang prison prostitutes Rackam rescue Royal Navy sailed seafaring seamen ship's shore sloop spent story Street Tahiti told took vessel voyage warships weeks West Indies whaling wife William William Darling wind wives woman women wrote York young