Women Sailors & Sailors' Women

by David Cordingly

4.David Spinney, Rodney (London, 1969), 115.

  1. Women on the Waterfront

  1.Bracebridge Hemyng, “Prostitution in London,” in Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor (first published 1851; edition cited London, 1967), 233.

  2.John Cremer, Ramblin’ Jack: The Journal of Captain John Cremer, 1700–1774, ed. R. Reynell Bellamy (London, 1936), 32.

  3.Ned Ward, The London Spy (first published 1703; edition cited Folio Society, London, 1955), 250.

  4.Ibid., 251.

  5.For much useful information on the role of women in alehouses, see Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A Social History, 1200–1830 (London, 1983), 203–6, 225, 235–36, 285.

  6.Ibid., 285 and 302.

  7.John Stow, A Survey of London, quoted by Stephen Inwood, A History of London (London, 1998), 185.

  8.The details of the life of Damaris Page are taken from E. J. Burford and Joy Wotton, Private Vices—Public Virtues: Bawdry in London from Elizabethan Times to the Regency (London, 1995), 70–76.

  9.Report by Patrick Colquhoun, quoted by John Pudney, London’s Docks (London, 1975), 18.

  10.Quoted by Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage (edition cited paperback, London, 1990), 392.

  11.Ibid., 393.

  12.John Harris, Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies: Or, Man of Pleasure’s Kalender, for the Year 1788 (London, 1788), 25.

  13.Ibid., 141.

  14.Ibid., 91.

  15.Hemyng, 231.

  16.Ibid., 229.

  17.John Binney, “Thieves and Swindlers,” in Mayhew, 365.

  18.Hemyng, 230.

  19.Timothy Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790–1920 (New York, 1992), 50.

  20.Quoted by Gilfoyle, 49.

  21.William Sanger, The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes and Effects Throughout the World (first published 1858; edition cited New York, 1939), 562.

  22.National Police Gazette (New York), March 20, 1847.

  23.National Police Gazette (New York), March 6, 1847.

  24.National Police Gazette (New York), May 22, 1847.

  25.Gilfoyle, 63.

  26.Ibid., 55–56.

  27.National Police Gazette (New York), January 2, 1847.

  28.Gilfoyle, 70.

  29.Marilynn Wood Hill, Their Sisters’ Keepers: Prostitution in New York City, 1830–1870 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1993), 102–3.

  30.Hill, 282–84; Gilfoyle, 71.

  31.Gilfoyle, 71.

  32.Frank Soule, John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet, The Annals of San Francisco (New York, San Francisco, and London, 1855), 176.

  33.Soule, 355, 391, 427.

  34.Most of the details for the description of life in San Francisco are taken from Herbert Asbury, The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (London, 1934), and Stan Hugill, Sailortown (London, 1967), which contains graphic accounts of San Francisco as well as the more notorious sailors’ districts of other ports around the world.

  35.See Reverend G. P. Merrick, Work Among the Fallen, as Seen in the Prison Cell (London, New York, and Melbourne, 1891).

  36.Merrick, 38.

  37.Gilfoyle, 64.

  38.Sanger, 563.

  39.Merrick, 51.

  40.Judith R. Walkowitz and Daniel J. Walkowitz, “ ‘We Are Not Beasts of the Field’: Prostitution and the Poor in Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts,” in Clio’s Consciousness Raised, ed. Mary S. Hartman and Louis Banner (New York, 1976). See also Judith R. Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State (London and New York, 1980); and Linda M. Maloney, “Doxies at Dockside: Prostitution and American Maritime Society, 1800–1900,” in Ships, Seafaring and Society: Essays in Maritime History, ed. Timothy J. Runyan (Detroit, Mich., 1987).

  2. The Sailors’ Farewell

  1.See chapter 14, “The Sailors’ Return,” for a description of the extraordinary scenes that took place on board many naval ships when they returned to harbor.

  2.The origins of the naval press gang go back to Tudor times and earlier. Originally, the word was “imprest,” which derived from the Latin word praestare, to be a surety for something, and the old French word prest, meaning a loan or advance. “Imprest” therefore meant money paid in advance to somebody for state or government business. By the late eighteenth century, the word had become “impress,” and the groups of men under an officer who carried out impressment were called press gangs.

  3.Nicholas Blake and Richard Lawrence, The Illustrated Companion to Nelson’s Navy (London, 2000), 64.

  4.Nicholas A. M. Rodger, “The Naval World of Jack Aubrey,” in Patrick O’Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography (London, 1994), 51. For a detailed description of impressment in the Royal Navy during the Seven Years’ War of 1756 to 1763, see N. A. M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (London, 1986); and for a description of impressment in the wars against France of 1794 to 1815, see Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson’s Navy (London, 1981, and paperback edition, 1997). For a useful general survey, see J. R. Hutchinson, The Press-gang Afloat and Ashore (London, 1913).

  5.William Spavens, The Narrative of William Spavens, a Chatham Pensioner, Written by Himself (Louth, England, 1796), 38.

  6.ADM 1/1490.

  7.ADM 1/1534.

  8.ADM 1/1537.

  9.Ibid.

  10.Ibid.

  11.Spavens, 36.

  12.William Richardson, A Mariner of England: An Account of the Career of William Richardson from Cabin Boy in the Merchant Service to Warrant Officer in the Royal Navy, ed. Colonel Spencer Childers (London, 1908), 292.

  13.Charles Cunningham, A Narrative of the Mutiny at the Nore (Chatham, 1829), 23.

  14.ADM 1/920.

  15.Jesse Lemisch, “Jack Tar in the Streets: Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America,” in William and Mary Quarterly 25 (1968) 383–84.

  16.Lemisch, 391.

  17.William Nevens, Forty Years at Sea: or a Narrative of the Adventures of William Nevens, Being an Authentic Account of the Vicissitudes, Hardships, Narrow Escapes, Shipwrecks and Sufferings in Forty Years Experience at Sea, Written by Himself (Portland, Maine, 1850).

  3. Ann Parker and the Mutiny at the Nore

  1.The details of the Mutiny at the Nore and the story of Ann Parker are taken from The Whole Trial and Defence of Richard Parker . . . On Board the Sandwich and Others of His Majesty’s Ships at the Nore, in May 1797 (London, 1797); William Jackson, The Newgate Calendar, VI (London, 1818), 497–508; the logbook of HMS L’Espion, and various captains’ letters; J. R. Hutchinson, The Press Gang, Afloat and Ashore (London, 1913), 273–79; and Charles Cunningham, A Narrative of the Mutiny at the Nore (Chatham, 1829). Captain Cunningham was commander of HMS Clyde, which was stationed at the Nore at the time of the mutiny. His Narrative is a day-by-day account of the course of events.

  2.According to Captain Cunningham, “Parker was said to be the son of a tradesman at Exeter, and in the year 1786 was a midshipman on board the Culloden from which ship he was discharged in consequence of his immoral conduct, the Captain considering him a bad example for the younger gentlemen. He was afterwards in the Leander, and was discharged from her for the same reason.” No indication is given of what his immoral conduct might have been. See Cunningham, 87.

  3.Trial and Defence of Richard Parker.

  4.The captain’s log of L’Espion for Friday, June 30, notes, “Winds easterly variable,” and by 8:00 A.M., “Fresh Breezes and Cloudy.”

  5.In his letters of July 17 and August 5, 1800, Isaac Coffin, commissioner of the navy at Sheerness, complained about the constant disorderly conduct of the common prostitutes in the shipyard. See The Mariner’s Mirror, January 1950, 92–93.

  6.The certificate is quoted in full in the report in Jackson’s Newgate Calendar, 508:

  London, July 4 1797

  I, An
n Parker, wife of the late Richard Parker, deceased, do hereby certify, that, at my particular request, I have this day seen the body of my late husband, in the Burying Vault of St. Mary, Whitechapel, by permission of the Rector, and Church-Warden of the said Parish; that the burial service was duly performed over him; and that I am perfectly satisfied with the mode of his interment, and the indulgence that I have received from the minister and officers of the said parish. (Signed) Ann Parker.

  7.Quoted by Hutchinson, 279.

  8.The letter is printed in full in Peter Kemp, The British Sailor: A Social History of the Lower Deck (London, 1970), 186.

  9.The story of Margaret Dickson is taken from Jackson, The Newgate Calendar, II (London, 1818), 153–56.

  4. Female Sailors: Fact and Fiction

  1.The details of Louisa Baker’s life are taken from The Female Marine and Related Works: Narratives of Cross-Dressing and Urban Vice in America’s Early Republic, edited and with an introduction by Daniel A. Cohen (Boston, Mass., 1997). This invaluable and scholarly book prints the full text of the three parts of the story of Miss Lucy Brewer (also called Louisa Baker and Mrs. Lucy West), as well as A Brief Reply to the Late Writings of Louisa Baker, by Rachel Sperry, and The Surprising Adventures of Almira Paul. Of the numerous editions of the story of Lucy Brewer, Cohen has selected the text of the tenth edition of 1816 as being the most complete.

  2.Cohen, 65.

  3.Ibid., 69.

  4.Ibid., 72.

  5.Ibid., 81.

  6.Deborah Sampson Gannet joined the American army in 1778 and served three years as a soldier: See Linda Grant de Pauw, Founding Mothers: Women in America in the Revolutionary Era (Boston, 1975). Other examples include The Female Volunteer; or the Life, and Wonderful Adventures of Miss Eliza Allen (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1851); and Loreta Janeta Velazquez, The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels, ed. C. J. Worthington (1876, reprint New York, 1972). For a fascinating discussion of the role of army wives, see Paul E. Kopperman, “The British High Command and Soldiers’ Wives in America, 1755–1783,” in Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 60, 14–34.

  7.They include Hannah Snell (first published in 1750), Mary Anne Talbot (first published in 1804), and Mary Lacy (first published in 1773).

  8.Suzanne J. Stark, Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail (London, 1996).

  9.Ibid., 87.

  10.ADM 37/5680.

  11.Much of the original text of the story of Mary Lacy is quoted in Stark, 123–66. Stark has checked the facts of the story against ships’ muster books and other British Admiralty papers and provides detailed documentation to show that Lacy’s account of her remarkable life is true in all essential respects.

  12.ADM 3/79. Quoted by Stark, 164–65.

  13.Edinburgh Evening Courant, Thursday, December 31, 1835, 4.

  14.Bell’s Weekly Messenger (London), no. 1941, Sunday, June 16, 1833, 185.

  15.Edinburgh Evening Courant, Monday, December 30, 1839.

  16.Carlisle Journal, no. 2642, Friday, September 7, 1849, 4.

  17.See Julie Wheelwright, Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness (London, 1989; cited paperback edition, 1990), 25; Stark, 89.

  18.Quoted by Stark, 112.

  19.National Police Gazette (New York), May 1, 1847.

  20.Bell’s Weekly Messenger (London), no. 1910, Sunday, September 9, 1832.

  21.The Morning Chronicle (London), Thursday, September 2, 1813.

  5. Hannah Snell, Mary Anne Talbot, and the Female Pirates

  1.The details of Hannah Snell’s life have been take from: Robert Walker, The Female Soldier; Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell (London, 1750); Matthew Stephens, Hannah Snell: The Secret Life of a Female Marine (London, 1997); Suzanne Stark, Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail (London, 1996); Julie Wheelwright, Amazons and Military Maids (London, 1989, cited paperback edition, 1990).

  2.Walker, 165.

  3.Ibid., 172.

  4.Matthew Stephens has tracked down the records of the two marriages of Hannah’s father in the Worcester Record Office. The first marriage bond, December 2, 1702, records the marriage of Samuel Snell, dyer, aged twenty-two, and Elizabeth Marston, aged about twenty (Worcester Record Office, document no. BA2036/21b). The second marriage bond, June 30, 1709, records the marriage of Samuel Snell, widower, aged twenty-nine years, and Mary Williams, aged twenty-five (Worcester Record Office, document no. BA2036/28a).

  5.According to the Land Tax Assessments for Wapping, James Gray began paying taxes for the house on Ship Street in 1744 (Guildhall Library, document no. MS6016/1630).

  6.Walker, 24, 141.

  7.The muster book of the sloop Swallow (ADM 36/3472) notes that James Gray joined the ship on October 24, 1747.

  8.Stark, 188, quotes the entry in the muster book of HMS Eltham (ADM 36/1035), “Jae. Gray [released] Cudelore Hopl. 2 Aug 1749, rec’d [into the Eltham] from Tartar 13 Oct. 1749.”

  9.Walker, 142.

  10.The muster book of HMS Eltham (ADM 36/1035) records that Jae. Gray was discharged at Spithead on May 25, 1750.

  11.Walker, 104.

  12.Chelsea Hospital admission book, 1746–54 (document no. WO 116/4).

  13.Several accounts of the life of Christian Davies were published, including The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies, the British Amazon, Commonly Call’d Mother Ross . . . (London, 1740); and Women Adventurers: The Adventure Series, ed. Menie Muriel Dowie (London, 1893), vol. 15. See also many references in Julie Wheelwright, Amazons and Military Maids.

  14.Stephens, 47.

  15.The Universal Chronicle, November 3 to November 10, 1759, 359.

  16.Stephens provides detailed references for the two later marriages of Hannah Snell and for the life of her son George.

  17.The Reverend James Woodforde, The Diary of a Country Parson, ed. John Beresford (Oxford, 1924; edition cited, 1981), 224.

  18.Stephens quotes the following text from a cutting from an unknown publication of September 14, 1791, found in the British Library (Biographical Adversaria, Add. Man. 5723): “This veteran heroine, who distinguished herself very highly many years ago, by repeated acts of valour, and who served in the navy under the virile habit, is still alive; but it is with regret we inform our readers that she was last week admitted into Bethlem Hospital, being at present a victim of the most deplorable infirmity that can afflict human nature.”

  19.Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives: Admission Register and Weekly Committee book for February 11, 1792.

  20.Dowie, 139–95.

  21.Ibid., 167.

  22.Stark has checked out the key events of Mary Anne Talbot’s life against army records and Admiralty documents and provides a fully documented account in her book, Female Tars, 107–10, 190–91. For Talbot’s life in the Royal Navy she has examined the muster book of the Crown, transport, March–May 1792 (ADM 36/11014); the muster book of the Brunswick, March–July 1794 (ADM 36/11176); the muster book of the Vesuvius, 1793–95 (ADM 36/12698); and the muster book of Haslar Hospital, June–July 1794 (ADM 102/274).

  23.The transcript of the trial was printed in Jamaica by Robert Baldwin in 1721. It was entitled The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and Other Pirates. There are two copies bound into the Colonial Office documents relating to Jamaica in the Public Record Office, Kew (CO 137/12).

  24.Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, and Also Their Policies, Discipline and Government, from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, . . . With the Remarkable Actions and Adventures of the Two Female Pyrates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny (London, 1724). The 1726 edition was enlarged to include more pirates and was printed in two volumes; the full text of this, the most complete edition, is contained in Daniel Defoe, A General History of the Pyrates, ed. Manuel Schonhorn (London, 1972). For a commentary on the ident
ity of Captain Johnson and a reprint of the 1725 edition, see Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, ed. David Cordingly (London, 1998).

  25.See David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (New York, 1995; published in England under the title Life among the Pirates, London, 1995); and Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750 (Cambridge, 1987). Rediker provides further insights into the lives of the female pirates in “Liberty beneath the Jolly Roger; the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Pirates,” in Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700–1920, ed. Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling (Baltimore and London, 1996), 1–33.

  26.The full text of the royal proclamation containing the King’s pardon was issued by the governor of Bermuda and will be found among the Colonial Office papers in the Public Record Office (CO 37/10, no. 7 (i).).

  27.The Boston Gazette, October 10–17, 1720.

  28.The Tryals of John Rackam, 17.

  29.Ibid., 19.

  30.CO 137/12, no. 78 (i–v), ff. 231–35.

  31.The Tryals of John Rackam, 19.

  32.Clinton V. Black, Pirates of the West Indies (Cambridge, 1989), 117.

  33.Family papers in the collection of descendants.

  34.Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the West Indies 32 (London, HMSO, 1933), 335.

  35.The Boston Gazette, February 6–13, 1721.

  6. Wives in Warships

  1.The Boston Gazette, October 7, 1811.

  2.J. Worth Estes, Naval Surgeon: Life and Death at Sea in the Age of Sail (Canton, Mass., 1998), 118–20.

  3.Ibid., 145.

  4.Harold D. Langley, A History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy (Baltimore and London, 1995), 190–92.

  5.Captain’s Orders, HMS Amazon, 1799, quoted from Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731–1815, ed. B. Lavery (Navy Records Society, Aldershot, U.K., 1998), 160.

  6.Ibid., 14.

  7.Ibid., 46.

  8.Ibid., 58.

  9.The Duke of York issued the order on October 29, 1800. Collection of Regulations and Miscellaneous Orders, 1760–1807, quoted by Colonel Noel T. St. John Williams, Judy O’Grady and the Colonel’s Lady: The Army Wife and Camp Follower Since 1660 (London, 1988), 17.