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:

‘She did the duty of a seamen without a murmur’- British Media Descriptions of ‘Female Sailors’, 1830-1860

For additional reading on this subject, check-out: 

                   

The Female Soldier Or, the Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell

The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Ann Talbot, in the Name of John Taylor (1809)

'Female Husbands' In The 19th Century

When Jennie Comes Marching Home Again...