From Cabin 'Boys' to Captains: 250 Years of Women at Sea

by Jo Stanley

Traditionally, a woman’s place was never on stormy seas. But actually thousands of dancers, purserettes, doctors, stewardesses, captains and conductresses have taken to the waves on everything from floating palaces to battered windjammers. Their daring story is barely known, even by today’s seawomen.From before the 1750s, women fancying an oceangoing life had either to disguise themselves as cabin ‘boys’ or acquire a co-operative husband with a ship attached. Early pioneers faced superstition and discrimination in the briny ‘monasteries’. Today women captain cruise ships as big as towns and work at the highest level in the global maritime industry.This comprehensive exploration looks at the Merchant Navy, comparing it to the Royal Navy in which Wrens only began sailing in 1991. Using interviews and sources never before published, Jo Stanley vividly reveals the incredible journey across time taken by these brave and lively women salts.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2016

Reviews

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accessible history of women working at sea with 20th century roles in the British military and civilian navies discussed in detail. There's a single reference to fishing at p75 and footnote 52.

Living and working at sea has always been as liberating for women as well as men because it's about travel and adventure. But women's oppression has deep roots, so the more class ridden and unequal a society, the more restrictions on women. Some of those restrictions loosened during wars and when workers were in short supply so some women could dress as men and get work at sea. 
But historically women have been sailors, whalers, fishermen and workers almost everywhere at sea. 

Oddly the author says “male crew from unenlightened cultures demean women” (p35) and then shows misogyny, sexism and sexual predators are virtually everywhere.

The most interesting material is Stanley's original research and many interviews with women working or retired from the sea. 

Travel by cruise liners has become big business and opened yet more opportunities. These are everything from deck and technical work to endless cleaning and looking after children. From swimming instructors, laundressers, telephonists, hairdressers and beauticians to entertainers.

The book's subtitle could have been, Why you should go to sea! Even though women’s work at sea has often been badly paid with poor conditions, yet being at sea and the intense camaraderie women described made it worthwhile for those who fought to get their place there.