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

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 superstit...