Women crew members and wives at sea.

[j.sabourn]

He was a makum and takum Marian , so any Scot’s blood he had he called Scotch and his first name was Freddy . Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Could have been Welsh Lamb Marion.
Was on my second trip, homeward bound from Bowen in Queensland with a load of Wheat. Up the Barrier Reef and around the top end, across the Indian Ocean, Three days out from Capetown ran out of food and only enough water to drink, showered in sea water. Then the cook cleaning out the duck boards in the freezer came across two Rabbits squashed under them, he made a big pot of stew, made me and a few others sick as dogs, never ate rabbit after.
Des

[Jo Stanley]

Hi John Arton. Might that girl be Elizabeth Linklater, author of 'A child Under Sail'? She made a number of voyages from 1872 when 17, and even earlier, at 4. (Jonathan Cape, 1938 and 1977?)

[Jo Stanley]

Dear Chris Hare,
it was very common for wives and daughters to be described in crew agreement as 'stewardesses'. It seems that men didn't know another way to describe a woman on ship in those early days.
It seems that these womenfolk dd not usually have discharge books, like real stewardesses. So it's unusual that your gran was registered. I'd love to know more.
Jo.

[Jo Stanley]

There don't seem to be many women posting here. Are any wives still around? It would be great to have a chat about what it was like having a seafaring husband or to hear stories of your own time at sea.

Dear Glennys, that's a good idea. There are many women ex-seafarers around but doing non-maritime things now, mainly. Some hairdressers network as 'I was as Steiner' on Facebook.
As for wives, The Watch Ashore is a very good network for wives, who meet every month via zoom too. Sometimes husbands chip in too. The wives do not say hostile things about men (as men do on this forum ).

[Glennys Faulds]

Thanks Jo. I've just read your very interesting article which brought back a lovely memory of a young woman I met. She was on her first trip with her husband and was desperate for something to do. She'd never sewn anything and didn't have a sewing machine but at the first port they put in to she bought some fabric and a pattern and hand-stitched a dress, which took her all the way from the UK to NZ. I was very impressed by the beautiful garment she'd produced. We became good friends and when I moved to Scotland with my Glaswegian husband I saw a lot of her as my husband was also friendly with her husband and they didn't live very far away from us.

Unfortunately, once we moved back to NZ and I became busy raising 5 children I gradually lost touch with her. Now you've jogged my memory and I wonder where she is now and if she is, like me, a grandmother of grown-up grandkids.