First US Edition -- The first comprehensive book on whaling wives at sea written for a general audience.

"This is the colourful tale of the whaling ships that plied the Pacific, Atlantic and Antarctic oceans in the nineteenth century, and the men and women who worked and lived on them. Women? Yes - an extraordinary number did accompany their husband-skippers on their long and perilous voyages, despite danger, privation and the undoubted brutality of the trade." "The women travelled from a variety of motivations - to keep their men from the demon grog and the voluptuous, sexually-generous maidens of the Pacific, to spread the Christian word and morals of the day, or simply because they did not like being separated from their menfolk for the four or five years each voyage typically lasted." "This book is about the experiences of these women on board the windjammer whalers and in the boisterous, brawling ports of nineteenth century New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, Chile and Peru, as well as on a host of exotic islands. It is a book that demanded to be written, and is the result of five years' research on two continents."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Under the title LOOKING BACK in a series of columns over many years,Jim Marquardt has delved into the colorful history of Sag Harbor, from the colonists who came ashore at Conscience Point in 1645 to the intrepid whaling captains who ventured into unknown Arctic waters. Did you know that at one time whaling was the third largest industry in the United States? Or that a few Sag Harbor sailors jumped ship and became kings of South Seas islands? Or that Sag Harbor wives sometimes sailed with their husbands on three­and four-year voyages? Here are the stories of the Native Americans who lived here long before the colonists, the friendship of Chief Wyandanch and Lion Gardiner, the first Custom House established in our young country, the Black sailors who crewed the whale ships, saboteurs who landed in Amagansett in WW 11, mutinies, shipwrecks, steamboats, and people like John Steinbeck who wrote that Sag Harbor made him happy.This is a rich collection of more than 70 stories by a writer who has dug deeply to tell us why so many people visit, linger in, and love Sag Harbor.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the whaling industry in New England sent hundreds of ships and thousands of men to distant seas on voyages lasting up to five years. In Captain Ahab Had a Wife, Lisa Norling taps a rich vein of sources--including women's and men's letters and diaries, shipowners' records, Quaker meeting minutes and other church records, newspapers and magazines, censuses, and city directories--to reconstruct the lives of the "Cape Horn widows" left behind onshore. Norling begins with the emergence of colonial whalefishery on the island of Nantucket and then follows the industry to mainland New Bedford in the nineteenth century, tracking the parallel shift from a patriarchal world to a more ambiguous Victorian culture of domesticity. Through the sea-wives' compelling and often poignant stories, Norling exposes the painful discrepancies between gender ideals and the reality of maritime life and documents the power of gender to shape both economic development and individual experience.

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 constant fear of gales, hurricanes, typhoons, collisions, and fire at sea. Interweaving first-person accounts from letters and journals in and around the lyrical narrative of a sea journey, maritime historian Joan Druett brings life to these stories. We can almost feel for ourselves the fear, pain, anger, love, and heartbreak of these courageous women. Lavishly illustrated, this breathtaking book transports us to the golden age of sail.

The U.S. Naval Institute Chronicles series focuses on the relevance of history by exploring topics like significant battles, personalities, and service components. Tapping into the U.S. Naval Institute's robust archives, these carefully selected volumes help readers understand nuanced subjects by providing unique perspectives and some of the best contributions that have helped shape naval thinking over the many decades since the Institute’s founding in 1873. Meeting the challenges of gender integration has been a “joint” operation that has encompassed all of the armed forces. This edition of Naval Institute Chronicles tells a significant portion of the evolutionary and revolutionary transition from the days of “yeomanettes” to today’s Navy—where women command ships and wear admirals’ stars.

Bringing together thirty years' work on arctic whaling, Ross's invaluable text supplements Margaret Penny's journal to present a complete picture not only of this particular expedition but of arctic whaling in general. Ross provides illuminating insights into the principal characters, the mechanics and strategy of whaling, life aboard ship, the climate and geography of the Arctic, the struggle for survival in the North, and the relationship between the Inuit and Europeans. The unique combination of Margaret Penny's unabridged journal and Ross's extensive knowledge of whaling makes This Distant and Unsurveyed Country an invaluable resource and an unforgettable tale of adventure.