For many women, the worst thing about being married to a sailor or a deep-sea fisherman was the prolonged separation from their husband. They were left to fend for themselves in a predominantly male-oriented society, and they suffered from loneliness and the constant anxiety of wondering whether their husband would be lost at sea. This was the case whether they were married to admirals or able seamen or fishermen. “O my Rodney, what pain and anxiety does your absence cause me,” wrote Jenny to her husband, Captain George Rodney, in 1756. 19 Somehow the sailors’ women and their families survived, partly through their own efforts, and partly through the help of friends and relations. But always hanging over them was the knowledge that their husbands, sons, or brothers might not return from the sea.
The agony of the parting and the worry about the safe return of loved ones affected sailors’ women of every age and every seafaring country. It is nowhere more poignantly expressed than in a letter written by Sarah Atrander of New York to her young brother Henry, who had run off to sea. She was devastated by his departure and was worried not simply for herself but for her older brother John and for their aged parents, who she feared would not be alive when he returned. The letter, dated May 28, 1845, is so evocative that it deserves to be quoted at some length:
Many hours have I sat by my window watching the passers by and listening to the door thinking to see my dearest Brother. Oh Henry how can I bear to hear little Sis lisp your name when she returns which she will do, who love you so dearly. The same afternoon you left John went up to see you and imagine his feelings when told you had gone he returned home with a heavy heart late at night and said you had gone oh Henry how could you leave us all and John who has done so much for you he would have spent his last breath for you. . . . John is not very well and I think you may never see him again he is about doctoring but he is born down with trouble and you leaving is the greatest.
She gave him news of the family and concluded:
And remember there is a God who rules all and to whom we must all render an account at the day of judgement and I have no more time but must say that all the Family wishes you well and would like to see you home again and now I must bid you a fond Farewell and dear Henry the tears trickle down my cheeks when I must say Farewell again and I fear forever where the Seas I fear will be your burial place if you are spared write an answer immediately and send to your dear Sister She can have only one lock of your hair as a remembrance do send it me if possible I can’t write more your aged and afflicted Father wants to carry this to John.
From your dear and affectionate Sister,
Sarah
May God see fit to make you one of his followers and spare you once more to return to the arms of your friend which will always be open to receive you. Farewell Henry. 20
The seafarers who tend to be forgotten were the offshore fishermen. Throughout the year, they put to sea in relatively small open boats. Sometimes they launched their boats through the surf off open beaches, sometimes they set off from river estuaries with constantly changing mudbanks and shoals. The more fortunate fishermen sailed out of fine natural harbors; the less fortunate sailed from tiny harbors constructed around inlets on rocky coasts, which were difficult and dangerous to enter in onshore winds. A variety of sizes and shapes of fishing vessels were developed over many generations to cope with the local conditions, and most were famously seaworthy in normal conditions. But all fishing boats, particularly those that were open or half-decked, were vulnerable to capsizing or swamping by the seas in violent storms. In the days before scientific weather forecasting, even the most careful fishermen could be caught out at sea by an unexpected squall or by the rapid buildup of storm-force winds.
In the autumn of 1881, the east coast of Britain from the Orkneys to the English Channel was hit by a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere. On Friday, October 14, forty-five fishing boats manned by 279 men and boys put to sea from the various fishing villages along the coast of Berwickshire. They headed out to the fishing grounds and shot their lines when they were some eight miles from the shore. The sea was calm, and conditions were ideal for fishing. Some of those on shore noted an ominously rapid fall in the barometer, and toward midday, heavy thunderclouds began to gather. The wind rose to hurricane force and soon whipped up a raging sea. The boats ran for shelter, but only twenty-six made it back to harbor, many of which lost men who were washed overboard; several boats were hurled onto the beaches and wrecked in full view of those on shore; 189 men and boys were drowned. The fishing village of Eyemouth lost 129 men, Burnmouth lost 24, and the rest came from other villages on the Berwick and Lothian coast. The figures may seem small compared with the numerous disasters we constantly hear of today, but the effect on the close-knit fishing villages was devastating: 263 children were left fatherless. There was scarcely a household in Eyemouth that had not lost a father, husband, or son, and formerly prosperous communities were ruined. 21
The same gale was witnessed by the great American artist Winslow Homer, who had taken residence a few months earlier in the Yorkshire fishing village of Cullercoats. He made several sketchbook studies of the Tynemouth lifeboat being launched off the beach and rowing out to rescue the crew of the bark Iron Crown, which had been driven aground while trying to make for the shelter of Tynemouth Harbor. But more memorable than his pictures of the lifeboat and the wreck are his brilliantly executed watercolors of the fisherwomen and girls of Cullercoats. He shows them mending nets, knitting socks, and carrying fish baskets along the beach. Several depict the young women on board the fishing boats alongside the men. But the most evocative are those that show the women waiting. Some of them huddle by the lifeboat station; others stand on the windswept shore staring out to sea, hoping and praying that their men will return safely.
Similar themes were taken up by the English artists of the Newlyn School. A group of some thirty artists took up residence in the Cornish fishing village in the 1880s. Their unofficial leader was Stanhope Forbes, and their principal subject matter was the daily life of the local people. The artists painted their weddings and their funerals, their houses, the harbor, and the fishing boats. Above all, they painted the fishermen’s wives and children, and in doing so, they provide us with an extraordinarily vivid picture of what went on indoors and outdoors in a typical late-nineteenth-century fishing community. They are a salutary reminder of the crucial part the women played in keeping the local economy going. Of course, they carried out all the unsung jobs of bringing up the children, shopping, making the meals, and doing the washing. But they also made the seagoing gear for the fishermen. They knitted their jerseys and socks, sewed up their oilskins, and made their flannel shirts. They repaired the nets, helped the men unload the boats, and packed the fish in barrels. They worked hard, but compared to the lives of many women in the industrial towns and cities of their period, they seemed to live an idyllic existence. The paintings of the Newlyn artists show the children playing with toy boats at the water’s edge or picking apples in the orchards. The sun sparkles on the water in the harbor. A pretty young mother sits beside a basket of onions tying them in bunches, while her little boy sits beside her showing her with delight the tiny crab he has caught.
But the artists also captured the somber side of Newlyn life. They lived long enough in the village to observe firsthand the tragedies that took place when fishing boats failed to return. One picture in particular sums up the precarious nature of life in such a community. It is entitled A Hopeless Dawn, and it was painted by Frank Bramley in 1888. The artist spent nearly ten years in Newlyn, living in a small, two-room fisherman’s cottage, and the oil painting established his reputation when it was hung at the Royal Academy. The other Newlyn artists were generous in their praise. Stanhope Forbes later wrote, “Bramley’s picture strikes me more than ever. I cannot describe how beautiful it is,” and Dame Laura Knight said of it, “Tears came into my eyes, I thought it so wonderful.” 22
The painting shows the interior of a
fisherman’s cottage at dawn. A table is laid in readiness for his return. Through the window can be glimpsed a cold gray sky and an angry gray sea. Kneeling on the floor with her head in her mother’s lap is the young fisherman’s wife, who now knows that her husband will never return. There is a large family Bible open beside the fisherman’s mother, who has evidently been trying to comfort her daughter with readings from the scriptures. The face of the daughter is hidden, and the mother’s face can scarcely be seen. All is revealed in their gestures. More clearly than any words, the picture reminds us of the grief that has been the lot of so many seafarers’ women.
GLOSSARY OF SEA TERMS
aft, after—Situated at or toward the back, or stern, part of a vessel.
block and tackle—An arrangement of pulleys and ropes used to raise heavy loads, and to increase the purchase on ropes used for the running rigging.
boatswain (bosun)—The warrant officer in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, and associated gear.
bowsprit—A heavy spar pointing forward from the stem, or front, of the vessel.
brace—A rope used to control the horizontal movement of a square-sailed yard.
brig—A two-masted vessel, the foremast square-rigged and the mainmast rigged with a fore-and-aft sail on the lower part and a square topsail and topgallant.
brigantine—A two-masted vessel with a square-rigged foremast and a fore-and-aft rigged mainmast; until about the middle of the eighteenth century, the mainmast had a square sail on the topmast.
broadside—The simultaneous firing of all the guns on one side of a ship.
bulkhead—A vertical partition inside a ship.
bumboat—A small boat used to bring out and sell fruit, vegetables, and other produce to the sailors on ships anchored some distance from the shore.
caulk—To seal the gaps between the planks with oakum and pitch.
clipper—A very fast square-rigged sailing ship that was used to transport tea, wool, and other valuable bulk cargoes in the second half of the nineteenth century.
colors—The flags worn by a vessel to show her nationality.
cutter—A small one-masted vessel rigged with a fore-and-aft mainsail, foresail, and jib; in the eighteenth century, a cutter usually had a square topsail as well.
deadeye—A round wooden block with three holes for securing the shrouds to the sides of the ship at the chainplates.
fathom—A measure of six feet, used to describe the depth of water, length of rope, etc.
East Indiaman—A large ship engaged in, and usually built for, trade with the East Indies.
flagship—A ship commanded by an admiral and flying his distinguishing flag.
flag captain—The captain in command of a flagship. (Captain Hardy was Nelson’s flag captain on board HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.)
fore—Situated in front; the front part of a vessel at the bow.
fore-and-aft—At bow and stern; backward and forward; along the length of the ship, or in the direction of its principal axis.
fore-and-aft rig—Having only fore-and-aft sails, i.e., sails set lengthwise and not across the ship’s hull. Compare square-rig.
forecastle, fo’c’sle—The short deck built over the fore part of the main deck; the forward part of a ship where the sailors lived.
foremast—The mast at the front of the vessel.
frigate—A fast-cruising warship, less heavily armed than a ship of the line; in the Royal Navy, frigates were Fifth or Sixth Rates with between 40 and 20 guns carried on a continuous single deck and on the quarterdeck.
halyard—A rope for raising and lowering a sail or yard.
galley—The ship’s kitchen.
grog—A drink of rum diluted with water.
gunwale—The uppermost planking along the sides of the vessel.
hatch boat—A type of fishing boat used in the Thames Estuary.
heave to (past tense: hove to)—To check the course of a vessel and bring her to a standstill by heading her into the wind and backing some of the sails.
helm—The tiller or wheel that controls the rudder and enables a vessel to be steered.
lee—The side or direction away from the wind, or downwind.
lee shore—The shore onto which the wind is blowing; a hazardous shore for a sailing vessel, particularly in strong or gale-force winds.
mainmast—The mast at the center of the ship or vessel, always the largest in square-rigged ships; the name of the first section of the mainmast in a square-rigged ship: the others are the maintopmast, maintopgallant mast, and main royal mast.
man of war—An armed ship belonging to the navy of a country or state.
mizzenmast—The mast toward the stern, or back, of a ship or vessel.
pink—A flat-bottomed merchant vessel with a relatively shallow draught and a narrow stern, variously rigged as a brig, a sloop, or a ship; a type of Dutch fishing boat that was launched off the beaches near Scheveningen.
poop deck—The aftermost and highest deck of a ship, in the largest ships.
port—The left side of a vessel, facing forward.
press gang—A group of men, led by an officer, who rounded up men for service in the Royal Navy.
quarterdeck—A deck above the main deck, which stretched from the stern to about halfway along the length of the ship. It was from this deck that the captain and officers controlled the ship.
rate (as in First Rate, Second Rate, etc.)—Warships in the Royal Navy were grouped into six different categories according to the number of guns they carried. In the middle of the eighteenth century, a First Rate ship had 100 guns, a Second Rate ship had 90 guns, a Third Rate had 80 to 70 guns, a Fourth Rate had 64 to 50 guns, a Fifth Rate had 40 to 28 guns, and a Sixth Rate had 24 and 12 guns. As time went on and ships got larger, the number of guns in each rate increased.
reef—To reduce the area of a sail by rolling it up or bundling part of it and securing that part to the yard with short lines called reef-points.
schooner—A two-masted vessel, fore-and-aft rigged on both masts; some schooners had square topsails on the foremast or on both topmasts.
scuppers—Holes in a ship’s side for carrying off water from the deck.
sextant—An instrument with a graduated arc of 60 degrees used for navigation.
sheet—A rope leading aft from the lower corner of a sail to control its position.
ship—A vessel with three or more square-rigged articulated masts (articulated masts could have the topgallant and topmast removed for safety in high weather: see mainmast); informally, any large seagoing vessel.
ship-of-the-line—A warship large enough to take her place in the line of battle; in the late eighteenth century, this usually ranged from Third Rate ships of 74 to 80 guns up to First Rate ships of 100 guns or more, and their foreign equivalents.
shrouds—The set of ropes forming part of the standing rigging and supporting the mast, topmast, and topgallantmast laterally.
slop seller—A supplier of clothes for sailors.
sloop—A vessel having one fore-and-aft rigged mast with mainsail and a single foresail; in the Royal Navy, any ship or vessel commanded by an officer with the rank of master and commander, usually rigged as a ship or brig and with 16 to 18 guns.
spar—A stout wooden pole used for the mast or yard of a sailing vessel.
square-rig—Having principally sails set to yards across the ship’s hull, often with additional fore-and-aft sails, e.g., jibs set on the bowsprit. Compare fore-and-aft rig.
starboard—The right side of a vessel, facing forward.
supernumerary—A person borne on the ship’s books surplus to the established complement.
tack—To change the direction of a sailing vessel’s course by turning her bows into the wind until the wind blows on her other side. Compare wear. To be
on the port/starboard tack is to sail with the wind coming over the port/starboard quarter.
tender—A vessel attending a larger vessel and used to supply stores or convey passengers.
three-decker—The largest class of warship, with upward of 90 guns on three gundecks, as well as the quarterdeck, forecastle, and often poop deck.
top (as in foretop, maintop, mizzentop)—A platform built at the head of the lowest section of the mast, serving to spread the topmast rigging and provide a place for sailors working aloft.
topmen—The sailors who went aloft to raise or lower the sails.
topsail—A sail set on the topmast.
warrant officers—These ranked below the commissioned officers (the captain and lieutenants) and included the master, purser, surgeon, gunner, boatswain, and carpenter.
wear (as in to wear ship)—To change the direction of a sailing vessel’s course by turning her bows away from the wind until the wind blows on her other side. Compare tack.
weigh—To pull up the anchor.
yard—A long spar suspended from the mast of a vessel to extend the sails.
yardarm—Either end of a yard.
NOTES
Key to Abbreviations Within the Notes
ADM Admiralty and Navy Board records held in the Public Record Office, London
CO Colonial Office records
HMSO Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
PRO Public Record Office, London
PROB Probate: copies of sea officers’ wills held in the Public Record Office, London
Introduction
1.ADM 1/5383.
2.Captain’s Orders, HMS Indefatigable, quoted from Shipboard Life and Organisation, 1731–1815, ed. B. Lavery (Navy Records Society, Aldershot, U.K., 1998), 188.
3.The Annual Report of the U.S. Life Saving Service, 1881, quoted from M. L. Clifford and J. C. Clifford, Women Who Kept the Lights (Williamsburg, Va., 1993), 96.
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