Sunday, February 22, 2015

Episode #18-Female Tars



 During the 19th a handful of extraordinary British women disguised themselves as men and sailed the high seas. Whether driven by financial desperation or seeking a distant lover, these ‘female tars’ endured countless hardships and the constant danger of having their true gender exposed.


Episode #18-Female Tars (Show Notes)


During the 19th a handful of extraordinary British women disguised themselves as men and sailed the high seas. Whether driven by financial desperation or seeking a distant lover, these ‘female tars’ endured countless hardships and the constant danger of having their true gender exposed.

For this podcast, I interviewed my fellow King’s College London postgraduate student Alanna Stanton. Alanna is presently researching perceptions of female sailors during the 19th century through the lens of contemporary newspaper reports. If you’d like to check-out the work she’s done thus far, here’s a link to her paper:


For additional reading on this subject, check-out: 

       Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail              Heroines and Harlots: Women at Sea in the Great Age of Sa: Women at Sea in the Great Age of Sail