By: Bridget Hornsby
Joan of Arc. Queen Elizabeth I. Clara Barton. Susan B. Anthony. Amelia Earhardt. Mary Cassatt. Margaret Thatcher. Mother Theresa. Sandra Day O'Connor. Sally Ride. (Whew!) Throughout the centuries women have made their mark with greatness in almost every venue and occupation. From monarchs to astronauts, countless fields have all felt the woman's touch. Some were humble. Some were outspoken. They've taken to the skies, the mountains and, yes, the seas. Their signatures cover the globe and fill history. Some women have even attempted to tame the oceans with no more civility than men.
Quietly tucked away in history books, many women have been lured to the oceans' beauty and danger. They've harnessed the thrill of the high seas, captained hundreds of their shipmates and plundered as pirates. They are from the past and are in our present. These women have been fearless and have met the deep's challenges with strength and fortitude. These are the women of the sea.
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Viking Raider: Alfhild
In the early 800s, wearing a great horned helmet and carrying a shield, a once modest Goth princess named Alfhild embarked on a career that Vikings were famed for: raids and pillages. "Devoting her hands to the lance, which should rather have been applied to the loom," reported one Victorian historian, Alfhild reputedly commandeered an orphaned Viking ship of rovers and pursued "deeds beyond the valor of women." Of course, her "questionable" occupational choice can only be attributed to the Viking's high-minded ideas regarding their stalwart females. Even their mythology included Valkyrie, a handmaiden to the gods, who rode into battle in valiant armor to her death.
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Adept Business Woman and Heroine: Agnes Cowtie
Affluent in her own right as CEO of an import/export business of the Renaissance Age, Scots-woman Agnes Cowtie, reputed as "wealthy and honourable," brought down some of the most notorious pirates of her time. An anomaly of the 16th century, Agnes was a member of the prestigious merchant's guild and was exporting wool on her vessel Grace of God one May day in 1582. The Grace of God, manned by her two sons and several long-trusted seamen, set out for the Netherlands with the goods in her belly. In July, she headed for home with new imports for Scotland.
However, before reaching homeport, they were plundered by pirates, a favorite, lucrative profession of the Age. Agnes' sons were killed while her crew was tortured and maimed with unimaginable techniques. The government, as was the norm, did not pursue these types of criminals with any intensity, so they flaunted their arrogance and flamboyant dress in the streets of southeast England. That was about to change thanks to Agnes.
Impassioned by the loss of her sons, the loss of her ship and all its cargo and most dutifully the tragedy of her once enabled employees now impaired for life, she began a vigorous and incessant campaign of redress to the government to the demise of these notorious pirates. She appealed to Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State, then to the Queen's cousin, King James VI of Scotland. Moved by these entreaties, Queen Elizabeth dispatched a force to seek and arrest the wrongdoers. The pirates were tricked by a temptingly clandestine ship and ended up swinging from the gallows, repentant and flamboyantly dressed up in their pirate attire. Doggedly, Agnes not only eventually recovered her ship, which had been sold to a Spanish merchant, but recovered compensation for her mariners as well.
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From the Good to the Bad and the Ugly: Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Irish-born Anne Bonny grew up as the daughter of a hapless lawyer, whose failed marriage to affluence forced him to seek better opportunities in the colony of North Carolina around the late 1600s. He bought a plantation and prospered, at least financially, but his distempered, rebellious daughter Anne scorned the tenets of decorum and gentility and married a destitute seaman. Her father disowned her, disappointing her gullible, gold-digging husband, James Bonny. As he searched for legitimate work, he lost his wife to a dashing buccaneer, Jack Rackham. Thus, began the pillaging-career of Anne Bonny. After flirting with the pirate's life a few years, they took advantage of a new government program: amnesty and freedom for any confessing pirates willing to forego their evil ways. Then they met Mary Read.
English woman Mary Read was born into immorality and deception. Mary's mother raised her illegitimate daughter as her legitimate and deceased brother in order to fool his benevolent grandmother into an inheritance. So convincing was Mary's masculine temperament and dress that in her early teens she set sail on a man-of-war. Later, she temporarily left the seas to join the cavalry, still camouflaging her femininity. There, though, she was discovered when she displayed an obsessive infatuation toward a fellow Flemish soldier. They married. They prospered for a while running a tavern, then he died.
To keep from starving, she again took up dressing in men's clothes and sailed for the West Indies. Her ship was taken by other pirates, who recruited the "man" Mary to join their merry band. She did and later, just as Jack and Ann did, she took advantage of the amnesty "program," testifying that she was forced to cooperate with the pirates. Her subsequent actions proved otherwise. In 1713, after her short stint of amnesty in a pirate port in the Bahamas, Mary voluntarily came out of retirement upon meeting Anne and Jack there and joined them in the trade of piracy once again.
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They were all caught again in 1720 in a surprise attack by a bounty hunter off the coast of Jamaica. It's recorded that Anne and Mary were the only resistance the bounty hunter encountered. The other crew (including Jack!) were found cowering in the hold. Mary, in her ire at their weakness, shot one to death and wounded a few others. Jack, Anne, and Mary were tried in 1721 according to court records. All were sentenced to execution by hanging. Both women, being found with child, were saved from the gallows. Jack did not share their fate. In poetic justice, Mary died in prison of a "violent fever" before giving birth. It is believed that Anne's father purchased her release from prison. She then moved with him back to North Carolina, married again, had eight children, and died at 86.
Marine Soldier at Arms: Hannah Snell
In 1747, Englishwoman Hannah Snell, a.k.a. James Gray, went to Portsmouth and enlisted in the marines as a man and served on the sloop Swallow. Commissioned to fight in India, Snell was wounded in the siege of Pondicherry in August 1748, but not before firing 37 rounds at the enemy. (This was quite a feat as no automatic weapons existed then.) She was released from the hospital a year later and reassigned. In 1750, after revealing her true identity, she was honorably discharged and given compensation for her injuries and a pension of 30 pounds annually for life. She is only one of two women who was granted a pension by the government at that time.
Career Woman of the Royal Navy: William Brown
Serving as captain on one of the largest ships in the Royal Navy was a black female sailor named William Brown. Brown joined the navy disguised as a man around 1804 after a rift she had with her husband. Successfully keeping her gender incognito for more than 12 years, she was described as "a smart, well-formed figure, about 5'4", possessing considerable strength and great activity," by London's Annual Register in 1815, when she was finally discovered to be a woman. She served as captain on the flagship Queen Charlotte, which had a crew of 850 and three decks with 104 guns. Her adroitness on the seas earned her respect and a constant paycheck even after the navy discovered her sex.
Present Day Heroines: Karen Thorndike and Dawn Riley
Thankfully, there are many women today accomplishing great feats on the seas without pretending to be men. Two women of today, topping the headlines for their individual accomplishments, are Karen Thorndike and Dawn Riley.
The first American woman to sail solo around the world is Karen Thorndike from Snohomish, Wash., from 1996 to 1998. Her twenty years on the water--which includes 40,000 blue water miles and many, major, offshore races--culminated in her single-handed journey in which Guinness Book of World Records recognized her achievement with a certificate stating,
"A U.S. record was set by Karen Thorndike, who became the first American woman to sail solo around the world in a sloop, Amelia, from 4 August 1996 to 18 August 1998, starting and finishing at San Diego, California, U.S.A"
Karen Thorndike navigated her 36-foot yacht Amelia successfully through the most reputedly treacherous waters on earth. On this 33,000-mile trip she maneuvered through the five Great Capes: Cape Horn (tip of South America), Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (south of Perth, Australia), South East Cape (Tasmania), and Southwest Cape off New Zealand. The Southern Ocean in particular presented her great hardship with high seas and violent winds.
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Likewise, Dawn Riley, from Detroit, Mich., demonstrates her success on the seas as CEO and captain as the first woman in the world to manage an America's Cup team. She is also the first American to have raced on three America's Cup teams and two Whitbread-Round-the-World teams on the Heineken and the Maiden. She earned the Rolex "Yachtswoman of the Year" in 1999 for her match racing and leadership prowess. Currently, she presides over the Women Sports Foundation. She recently released her new book entitled Taking the Helm, where she tells the story of the all-women crew in the 1993-94 Whitbread.
