Hen Frigates: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea

A "hen frigate," traditionally, was any ship with the captain's wife on board. Hen frigates were miniature worlds — wildly colorful, romantic, and dangerous. Here are the dramatic, true stories of what the remarkable women on board these vessels encountered on their often amazing voyages: romantic moonlit nights on deck, debilitating seasickness, terrifying skirmishes with pirates, disease-bearing rats, and cockroaches as big as a man's slipper. And all of that while living with the constan...