Female Mariners
In 2017, the OBMG honored Female Mariners. Although the maritime industry is a male dominated industry, women have long been a force to be dealt with throughout the ages, in the maritime field.
Islamic pirate, Queen Sayyida al Hurra, (1485 – 14 July 1561), wreaked havoc on Spanish and Portuguese shipping lines in the 16th century and was the undisputed leader of the pirates in the Western Mediterranean Sea at that time. She was a queen of Tétouan in 1515–1542 and a pirate queen in the early 16th century. She is considered to be "one of the most important female figures of the Islamic West in the modern age".
1453 marked the end of the Roman Empire when the Ottomans captured Constantinople. She was two years old when the Portuguese started their colonial conquest by capturing some ports at the western coast of Morocco in 1487. A few years later, Granada fell into the hands of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon who forced conversions of Muslims in Spain followed.
Allied with the Turkish corsair Barbarossa of Algiers, al Hurra controlled the western Mediterranean Sea while Barbarossa controlled the eastern Mediterranean. In 1515, she became the last person in Islamic history to legitimately hold the title of al Hurra (Queen) following the death of her husband, who ruled Tétouan.
The infamous pirate queen Anne Bonney (c. 1697 – c. 1782) was a red-haired Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean. Around 1715, she moved to Nassau in the Bahamas, a sanctuary for pirates. It was there that she met Calico Jack Rackham and became his pirate partner and lover. In1720 she also partnered with another female pirate Mary Read (1685 – 1721) who was born in England and also moved Nassau in 1715.
In October 1720, all three were captured and sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed because both of them were pregnant. Read died of a fever in jail in April 1721 (likely due to complications from the pregnancy), but Bonny's fate is unknown.
Hannah Snell, (1723 –1792) In 1740, her husband abandoned her while she was pregnant. When her daughter died at the age of 1, Snell borrowed a man’s suit from her brother-in-law James Gray, assumed his name, and began to search for her husband. She later learned that her husband had been executed for murder.
In 1745, she joined the 6th Regiment of Foot, in the army of the Duke of Cumberland against Bonnie Prince Charlie. She deserted when her sergeant gave her 500 lashes and joined the Marines. She boarded the ship Swallow and sailed to Portugal and India.
In 1750, her unit returned to Britain, where she revealed her sex to her shipmates. She petitioned the Duke of Cumberland, the head of the army, for her pension. She also sold her story to London publisher Robert Walker, who published her account, The Female Soldier, in two different editions. She also began to appear on stage in her uniform presenting military drills and singing songs. Three painters painted her portrait in her uniform and The Gentleman's Magazine reported her claims. She was honorably discharged, and her military service was officially recognized. She was granted her a pension in 1750 (increased in 1785), a rare thing in those days.
The first Black Female to sail with the Royal Navy, sailed under the name of William Brown. Her real name is unknown. She was born either on the island of Granada or in Edinburgh, England. She ran away to sea after a fight with her husband. She figured going to sea would give her a sense of independence and freedom, which is the same reason that many African American men, during slavery times and even after slavery, took to the sea. It is said that she served from 1805 until 1815. She was listed among the crew of the HMS Queen Charlotte, a three-deck ship and one of the largest ships in the Royal Navy at the time.
There is also a muster report that lists her and other members from the HMS Queen Charlotte joining the HMS Bombay, a smaller ship of only 74 guns in June of 1816. The record show, undisputedly, she was the first Black female to serve in the Royal Navy.
Mary Lacy (c.1740 – 1801) was a British sailor, shipwright and memoirist. She was the first woman to have been given an exam and a pension from the British Admiralty as a shipwright. Lacy ran away from home dressed as a boy at the age of 19 in 1759 and worked as a servant for a ship's carpenter of the British navy under the name William Chandler until 1763. She then studied as an apprentice to be a shipwright. In 1770, she took her exam as a shipwright. In 1771, however, she was forced to stop working because of her rheumatism, and applied for a pension from the admiralty under her legal name, Mary Lacy, which was granted. She published her memoirs The Female Shipwright (1773).
The famous Cantonese female pirate, Ching Shih (1775–1844) commanded 1,800 ships and more than 80,000 pirates, which included men, women, and even children. She terrorized the China Seas and entered into conflict with major nations, such as the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire, and the Qing dynasty. Ching Shih was born a regular village girl, and, like most of the village women in the early 19th century, earned a living as a prostitute on a floating brothel. However, her life would change completely when she met her future husband Cheng I. The pirate couple commanded a fleet of 200 ships.
One year after their wedding, Cheng I died in battle, Ching Shih found herself leading 50 000 pirates and had no intention of failing. She prepared a strict set of rules for her crews. One of these stated that as soon as they seized a ship, the booty would be equally distributed among the pirates. She also demanded that her pirates be faithful to their wives, any adultery was punishable by death.
The Chinese government eventually signed a truce with her. The Emperor asked that she end her plundering and in exchange promised to let her keep all of her wealth without prosecution. Ching Shih accepted the offer and returned to her native Guangdong. She married one of her crew members and they opened and operated a gambling house until her death in 1844.
Lt. J.G. Harriet Ida Pickens and Ensign Frances Wills In 2017 we also honored Lt. J.G. Harriet Ida Pickens and Ensign Frances Wills, the first African American women to graduate from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (Women’s Reserve) at Northampton, Massachusetts, and these women became the first African American WAVES officers. WAVES is an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the program in 1942, and it did not necessarily include all women. Capt. Mildred McAfee, the Waves director at the time wanted to open the WAVES up to all women, even women of color. At the time, Japanese and Native American women were accepted as WAVES but not Black women. The Secretary of the Navy, William Knox was strongly against it and was overheard saying that “Blacks would be admitted to the WAVES over his dead body”. Well, you know the saying “God works in mysterious ways” or “be careful what you wish for.” In April of 1944, William Knox had a massive heart attack and died. His successor James Forrestal did not believe in a segregated Navy, so upon taking over his new position, he ordered the WAVES and the Navy Nurse Corps to be integrated.
On Oct. 19, 1944, a newspaper headlines stated, “Navy to admit Negroes into the WAVES.” For the first time black women would be commissioned naval officers as members of the Navy’s female reserve program. These two women joined the last class of the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. on November 16, 1944, and were commissioned as the Navy’s first African American WAVES officers on Dec. 21, 1944. Upon their graduation, the Navy assigned Pickens as a physical training instructor and Wills as a classification test administrator at the main enlisted WAVES training facility at Hunter College in New York City, also known as USS Hunter. And more than 70 black women joined the enlisted ranks by Sept. 2, 1945. Among them was Edna Young, one of the first enlisted WAVES to later be sworn into the regular Navy, and Edna Young went on to become the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the regular Navy.
