{"id":351,"date":"2011-09-09T11:30:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T18:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=351"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:12:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:12:31","slug":"a-thrilling-youtube-video-and-some-sobering-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/a-thrilling-youtube-video-and-some-sobering-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"A thrilling YouTube video — and some sobering thoughts…"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tallship experience for Coast Guard cadets<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I first saw this YouTube video on The Fiddeye Guide<\/a>, Joe Follansbye’s remarkable website,\u00a0 an encyclopedia for the lover of American maritime history.\u00a0\u00a0 The video is an excerpt from a 1999 documentary following new cadets on their voyage aboard the U.S. S.\u00a0Eagle, a\u00a0<\/em>Coast Guard sailing vessel used to teach team building as well as the history and traditions of the maritime profession to select\u00a0cadets.<\/p>\n

I was thrilled and proud\u00a0to see so many young American women<\/strong> alongside the men aboard the Eagle.\u00a0<\/em> When it comes to climbing the rigging, the differences between men and women are equalized.\u00a0 It does not require brute strength but a willingness to overcome a natural fear of heights, attention to safety and instruction, and self-confidence.<\/p>\n

Watching\u00a0this\u00a0video I was reminded of my\u00a03 weeks aboard HM Bark Endeavour in 1999<\/em>, when I was\u00a0a voyage crew member\u00a0and one of the foremast watch\u00a0along with\u00a0my husband Bob, who served for a week as Captain of the Tops.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I learned what it’s like to do a man’s work aboard a ship, and I began to think about what it might have been like to have been a woman in disguise working aboard a ship in the age of sail…\u00a0 (In all honesty, it was a lot of hard work.\u00a0 When I wasn’t bloody exhausted I was hungry, or terrified.\u00a0 OK, terrified is a bit extreme.\u00a0 Let’s say I\u00a0vacillated\u00a0between\u00a0moderately anxious and fearful for the first two weeks.\u00a0 By week three\u00a0I was actually enjoying the whole experience, even climbing aloft\u00a0and going out on the foot rope like a\u00a0circus performer, to make or furl sail.\u00a0 (watch the video<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Watching this U.S.\u00a0Coast Guard clip\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0feel admiration for\u00a0these fresh-faced, confident young women and men who are serving our country and gaining an appreciation for the discipline and teamwork\u00a0required to sail a\u00a0traditional vessel.\u00a0 My fictional\u00a0Patricia MacPherson would find her place at last \u00a0in this 21st century, when as a woman she could be a surgeon or a sailor — if she could prove herself.\u00a0\u00a0 (Well, at least in America or Britain she could.\u00a0 There are many countries and cultures where that is still not possible, where women are still chattel.)<\/p>\n

Now that reminds me of 9\/11, and that attack on the United States makes me fear for the freedom of\u00a0women everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, men too.\u00a0 But particularly for women.\u00a0 Our own \u00a0freedoms\u00a0came about gradually\u00a0 as the rights of most of the population of the United States (women and blacks)\u00a0were not included in the\u00a0original Constitution of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0Blacks —\u00a0and women of any color —\u00a0were not yet citizens in 1776. \u00a0“Life,\u00a0liberty and the pursuit of happiness” were not intended for us.<\/p>\n

At the time of the American Revolution\u00a0there was\u00a0no system of\u00a0public education for women in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0Married women\u00a0had no legal status, could not vote,\u00a0\u00a0sign contracts or bequeath property.\u00a0\u00a0 We weren’t quite\u00a0slaves, yet we were<\/em> property of a sort and our options as females were limited.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0my historical fiction\u00a0novels one of the themes I explore is what it might have been like to have been a\u00a0British born woman in the 18th century, trying to survive in a man’s world; a world that could be brutally harsh even if you were a man.\u00a0 Or a woman pretending to be a man…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tallship experience for Coast Guard cadets\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I first saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,105],"tags":[390],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ships-and-boats","category-women-sailors","tag-women-sailors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","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=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}