{"id":1563,"date":"2013-09-16T10:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T17:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2013-09-18T11:34:46","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T18:34:46","slug":"women-working-men-aboard-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/women-working-men-aboard-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Who wouldn\u2019t sell a petticoat and go to sea?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A sailor takes her ease
artwork by Eye Be Oderlesseye.
mimifoxmorton.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Women in breeches — I got caught up in the\u00a0masquerade back in 1999, while serving as a voyage crewmember aboard the HM Bark Endeavour<\/i>, a replica of James Cook\u2019s 18th<\/sup> century ship, which was circumnavigating that year.\u00a0 On my three-week passage from Vancouver to Kealakekua, Hawaii\u00a0I worked alongside 53 officers and\u00a0men (one of whom I was married to) to sail, steer,\u00a0and maintain the ship.\u00a0 Eight of us were female.\u00a0 On this passage of a lifetime, I became intrigued with the idea of a woman\u00a0dressing like a sailor and doing a man\u2019s job aboard a ship \u2013 because that\u2019s exactly what I was doing!\u00a0 I figured if\u00a0a middle-aged woman\u00a0could do the work, surely a much younger gal would have no problem.<\/p>\n

\"Tops-D\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In spite of the persistent, old husbands’ tale that women are bad luck at sea, women have long been going to sea, luck be damned.\u00a0 But for a period of several hundred years some of them had to resort to disguise.<\/p>\n

And for some, it ended badly.\u00a0 From the St. James Gazette, supplement to the Manchester Courier on July 5, 1890 we hear this\u00a0snippet of a story:<\/p>\n

The case of the poor little sea apprentice \u201cHans Brandt\u201d who the other day fell into the hold of the barque Ida of Pensacola, at West Hartlpool and was killed, adds one more name to the long list of women<\/strong> who, for one reason or another, have put aside the garments of their sex and have donned the habits and imitated the ways of men.\u00a0 Not until \u201cHans Brandt\u2019s\u201d body was being prepared for burial was it discovered that the Ida\u2019s apprentice was a girl\u2026\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0(britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)<\/p>\n

From the Renaissance through the Victorian age there are many acounts of\u00a0women in disguise working aboard ship as sailors, servants, skilled craftsmen, marines –and\u00a0even a few officers, such as Anne Chamberlyne, twenty-three year old daughter of a lawyer, who served aboard the Grifffin Fireship, commanded by her brother Clifford, during the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690.\u00a0 Most of these femmes<\/em> fared better than poor Hans Brandt who fell into the hold.\u00a0 Some went on to write their memoirs.\u00a0 Some became immortalized in\u00a0folk songs.\u00a0 And some, like Anne Chamberlyne,\u00a0had memorials errected in their honor.<\/p>\n

The first books I came across that were entirely devoted to women at sea were Joan Druett’s<\/a> Hen Frigates<\/em>, and\u00a0She Captains; Heroines and Hellions of the Sea<\/em>.\u00a0 I soon discovered\u00a0many other works, but Joan’s\u00a0books\u00a0introduced\u00a0me to the world of women on ships.\u00a0 Another of her books on the subject is Petticoat Whalers; Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>Over the years I’ve collected many\u00a0more sources.\u00a0 Historians Lesley and Roy Adkins, authors of several British Naval history books, have been very helpful in sharing their own research with me.<\/p>\n

Just as I was writing this post, Andrew Beltz, one of the crew aboard “All Things Nautical”<\/a> Facebook\u00a0group\u00a0gave me a hot tip about Louise\/Louis Giradin,\u00a0a French woman who masqueraded as a\u00a0steward on La Recherche<\/em>, which set out 1791 under the command of Bruny d”Entrecasteaux, in search of the missing La Perouse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“She had appeared at Brest disguised as a man, with a letter of introduction to Mme Le Fournier d’Yauville. She persuaded her brother Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, then second in command to d\u2019Entrecasteaux, to recommend her as a steward on the Recherche. It appears that d\u2019Entrecasteaux knew her secret, and gave his approval…\u00a0 She had a small but separate cabin…\u00a0 <\/em>During the voyage, Girardin\u00a0maintained a male identity, despite widespread suspicion. She even fought a duel with a crew member who questioned her gender…\u00a0“<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0from — Journeys of Enlightenment\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

While Louise Girardin is honored with a plaque in Tasmania,\u00a0 few\u00a0scholars have\u00a0given serious attention to the many women soldiers and sailors of the pre-modern era.\u00a0 Not many fiction writers have given life to their stories, either.\u00a0 Crossdressing women on ships\u00a0seem to be regarded by many historical novelists\u00a0as unwanted intruders into the male domain of wooden ships.\u00a0\u00a0 Why can’t the damned dames\u00a0just stay home,\u00a0card wool, and mind\u00a0the starving brats?\u00a0 OK, maybe there were<\/em> a few of these\u00a0broads in breeches\u00a0(obviously lesbians) —\u00a0but NOT on my ship, dammit!\u00a0\u00a0Julian Stockwin\u00a0<\/strong>includes a crossdressing stowaway named Pookie\u00a0in one of his Kydd adventures, but\u00a0for the most part, they are shunned.\"51EKdjKF1vL__SL500_AA280_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But crossdressers were once objects of admiration.\u00a0 Beginning in the Elizabethan era and continuing through the 19th<\/sup> century, stories and songs about young women gone to war on land or sea,\u00a0were popular among the working classes of Great Britain and\u00a0North America.\u00a0 According to Dianne\u00a0Dugaw,\u00a0these folk songs were as well-known in their time as Blowin\u2019 in the Wind was, in the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 The female soldier or sailor was an enduring motif \u2013 a character who displayed both male courage and female fidelity.\u00a0 In most of these ballads (Dugaw\u00a0cites hundreds of them) the theme is that of a virtuous woman gone to war in search\u00a0of the man she loves.\u00a0\u00a0This heroine captured the imagination of the public for hundreds of years but died out in the twentieth century, as women’s rights became more of an issue — and perhaps more of a threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how did they get away with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

I can only throw out some educated guesses based on my own experience and what others have to say on the matter.<\/p>\n

As Joan Druett, Suzanne Stark, and\u00a0other nautical historians\u00a0have pointed out, there were many young boys serving aboard these ships.\u00a0\u00a0 A\u00a0female\u00a0in breeches\u00a0might\u00a0easily pass as a teenaged boy.\u00a0\u00a0We’ve all seen\u00a0such epicene youngsters in that awkwardly beautiful stage of development; people who could be either male or female, we can’t be certain.<\/p>\n

Before the twentieth century the navies didn’t require thorough physical exams.\u00a0 The only time seamen were required to strip was if they were about to be flogged.\u00a0\u00a0The navies needed capable men\u00a0— especially when a war was on, which was much of the time in the\u00a017th<\/sup>, 18th<\/sup>, and 19th<\/sup> centuries.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If someone presented themself as a man and was dressed like a man, and gave a man\u2019s name \u2013 why, he would be welcomed aboard, no questions asked.\u00a0 Who cared if he had a smooth cheek and a soft voice?\u00a0 Ample breasts are easily flattened.\u00a0 Loose breeches rather than tight ones would hide what wasn’t there.\u00a0 My fictional crossdresser Patricia\/Patrick MacPherson is by nature flat-chested with boyish hips and a complexion ruined by freckles.\u00a0 It’s only her voice she has to work on.\u00a0 After a time it becomes second nature.<\/p>\n

Having lived and worked aboard the Endeavour <\/i>Replica, I can tell you that seamen are kept busy most of the time and people aren\u2019t lurking around corners waiting for you to flash your undergarments or to see what\u2019s hidden inside them.\u00a0\u00a0Eighteenth-century ships were ill-lit and extremely dark belowdecks, even during the daytime.\u00a0 People didn\u2019t bathe often; they seldom changed their clothes.\u00a0\u00a0 Women likely held their bladders until after dark before relieving themselves in the heads, or\u00a0the “seats of ease.” \u00a0People in crowded places, such as ships, tend to respect one another\u2019s privacy.\u00a0 As sodomy was punishable by death, men likely tended to keep their eyes and hands to themselves, once they sailed away from the prostitutes who came to the ship by the boatloads when the ships were at anchor.\u00a0 Then again, the warrants could take their wives to sea with them \u2013the ship was their home \u2013so 18th<\/sup> century ships were not the exclusive male clubs some novelists make them out to be.\u00a0\u00a0 There were<\/em> women on many ships and maybe some of these warrant’s wives\u00a0recognized and helped their sisters in disguise.<\/p>\n

What of menstrual periods, some ask me.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a squeamish male, you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph<\/strong>.\u00a0 Well, what of it?\u00a0\u00a0I mean, can you<\/em> walk into a crowded room today and pick out the women who are menstruating?\u00a0 I doubt it. \u00a0There were rags —\u00a0and there was oakum, the fibers of worn-out ropes picked apart and collected to reuse as caulking.\u00a0\u00a0Pretty scratchy, but it might\u00a0work in a pinch.\u00a0 Beause many of the seamen suffered from constipation and bleeding hemmorhoids, blood-stained\u00a0breeches would not draw much notice \u2013 and the stains could be covered up with tar, plentiful on a ship.\u00a0\u00a0 Then again, amennorhea may have been the rule.\u00a0 The Mayo Clinic lists stress, low bodyweight and excessive exercise as conditions which can cause the cessation of menstruation.\u00a0 Due to the hard work and limited diet, women posing as men might have skipped menses or have had very light flows, easily contained.\u00a0\u00a0OK squeamish males, you can start reading again.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe some of these masquerading\u00a0women had\u00a0sponsors \u2013\u00a0 men or\u00a0\u00a0women aboard who knew their secret and helped them get by.\u00a0 Maybe\u00a0they were friends or lovers on land.\u00a0 Maybe the sponsor felt compassion for them.\u00a0 Maybe they admired them.\u00a0 \u00a0Then again, maybe some of these women were coerced into giving sexual favors in return for guarding their real identity.<\/p>\n

In The Discovery of Jeanne Baret<\/em> (Crown Publishers; 2010) Glynis Ridley suggests\u00a0that the\u00a0the crossdressing Jeanne who went on Bougainville’s expedition\u00a0as the botanist Commercon’s assistant,\u00a0was gang-raped by some of the crew on the island of New Ireland, and subsequently became pregnant, delivering the baby on Mauritius, where she remained for seven years before completing her circumnavigation.\u00a0 Ridley’s interpretations of\u00a0the accounts of Bougainville and his officers, is a dark and chilling one.\u00a0 I don’t always agree with the conclusions she comes to,\u00a0but the case she presents is\u00a0plausible.\u00a0 Although in Ridley’s interpretation it wasn’t the sailors who gang-raped Baret, but the other servants and possibly, the ship surgeon.<\/p>\n

So why did they do it? The paycheck\u00a0was of course, the\u00a0big draw.\u00a0\u00a0Always in arrears, the pay was\u00a0likely more than a femme sole<\/em> could make selling\u00a0fish — or selling her\u00a0favors.\u00a0 The roof over her head, leaky though it might be, was\u00a0a nice perk.\u00a0 As were the three square meals of weevily ship buscuit , mouldy cheese and salt beef.\u00a0 A ration of grog and a hammock to sleep in?\u00a0 And aboard a naval\u00a0ship, the chance of prize money, which was divided among the crew!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Are you kidding me?\u00a0 Who wouldn\u2019t sell a ragged petticoat and go to sea?<\/p>\n

\"maryannetalbot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But some females were coerced into the role of cabin boy by their masters.\u00a0 Mary Anne Talbot, for instance.\u00a0\u00a0 Talbot\u2019s\u00a0master was militia captain Essex Bowen, who assigned her with boy’s clothing, the name of John Taylor, and brought her along to the West Indies as his personal servant.\u00a0 We can only imagine the\u00a0many tasks she was required to perform for him…\u00a0 Another reported case is that of thirteen-year-old Rebecca Ann Johnson whose father dressed her as a boy\u00a0and apprenticed her to a collier ship where she served four years.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0surely\u00a0a few\u00a0girls\u00a0went to sea primarily\u00a0for the adventure, as I did aboard Endeavour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How\u00a0many?\u00a0 We\u2019ll never know.\u00a0 How did they get away with it?\u00a0 We can only surmise.\u00a0 What I can tell you for certain is that a woman can do a man\u2019s job aboard a sailing ship.\u00a0\u00a0 I did it, and I earned the respect of my male watchmates, whose knees trembled as much as mine\u00a0 the first time we climbed up the ratlines, up and over the futtock shrouds, on up to the cross trees and out on the foot rope to make and furl sail.\u00a0 When no sail changes were required, we were put to work doing ship maintenance, which was never-ending.\u00a0 And when, after four hours on watch we went below, we strung up our hammocks and collapsed from fatigue.<\/p>\n

In summary, some crossdressers had inside help —\u00a0someone who knew their secret and helped them — or forced them — to\u00a0maintain their ruse.\u00a0\u00a0But I believe\u00a0a few enterprising females acted independently,\u00a0 deftly pulling the wool over their shipmates\u2019 eyes.\u00a0\u00a0I base this\u00a0on a phenomenon I call\u00a0“male pattern blindness” or “androgenic visual deficit.”\u00a0 Many ordinary objects are totally invisible to\u00a0men who have this genetic trait, which has reached epidemic proportions in the twenty-first century.\u00a0 Maybe you know someone with this\u00a0handicap?\u00a0 Someone who\u00a0goes to the refrigerator for\u00a0a\u00a0bottle of beer but\u00a0literally can’t see it lurking\u00a0behind a jar of mayonaise,\u00a0and calls to his wife, asking for help?<\/p>\n

\"refrigerator\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having lived and worked with men, both at sea and on land (and having found countless bottles of invisible beer\u00a0in the refrigerator) I think I know how a women could get away with it.\u00a0 Dress like a man\u00a0\u00a0(or a mayonaise jar)\u00a0and pull your weight.\u00a0 Do your duty, don’t\u00a0cause trouble, and chances are good your watchmates won’t see past your\u00a0seaman’s slops and your sunburned,\u00a0tar-smudged face.\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently it worked for Hans Brandt — but watch out for open hatches.<\/p>\n

In future blogs I’ll share more of my personal experiences as an ordinary seaman\u00a0 aboard HM Bark Endeavour <\/em>— and I’ll discuss\u00a0individual crossdressing seamen in more detail.<\/p>\n

\"endeavour\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By a Yankee Moon,<\/em> a novel about a crossdressing sailor and book three of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series, will be available in 2014.\u00a0 Barbados Bound<\/em> and Surgeon’s Mate<\/em>, the first two books in the series, are published by Fireship Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more nautical posts please visit\u00a0the rest of the fleet on this week’s blog hop, organized by Helen Hollick<\/a>, author of\u00a0 Sea Witch Voyages<\/em>, a pirate-based fantasy, and other historical fiction.\u00a0 A rising tide raises all ships!<\/p>\n

J.M. Aucoin<\/a><\/p>\n

Helen Hollick<\/a><\/p>\n

Doug Boren<\/a><\/p>\n

Linda Collison<\/a><\/p>\n

Margaret Muir<\/a><\/p>\n

Julian Stockwin<\/a><\/p>\n

Anna Belfrage<\/a><\/p>\n

Andy Millen<\/a><\/p>\n

V.E. Ulett<\/a><\/p>\n

T.S. Rhodes<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Patton<\/a><\/p>\n

Katherine Bone<\/a><\/p>\n

Alaric Bond<\/a><\/p>\n

Ginger Myrick<\/a><\/p>\n

Judith Starkson<\/a><\/p>\n

Seymour Hamilton<\/a><\/p>\n

Rick Spilman<\/a><\/p>\n

James L. Nelson<\/a><\/p>\n

S.J. Turney<\/a><\/p>\n

Prue Batten<\/a><\/p>\n

Antoine Vanner<\/a><\/p>\n

Joan Druett<\/a><\/p>\n

Edward James<\/a><\/p>\n

Nighthawk News<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2013-Nautical-Blog-Hop-small[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women in breeches — I got caught up in the\u00a0masquerade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244,105],"tags":[153,156,155,32,50,133,387,27,390],"class_list":["post-1563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nautical-history-2","category-women-sailors","tag-barbados-bound","tag-crossdressing-sailors","tag-female-tars","tag-hm-bark-endeavour","tag-joan-druett","tag-nautical-history","tag-patricia-macpherson-nautical-adventure-series","tag-surgeons-mate","tag-women-sailors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1617,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}