We know quite a bit about the experiences of sailors and explorers through their diaries and sketchbooks, as they documented adventure all over the world which punctuate long, boring sea voyages in the Age of Sail. Some of those diarists were women. They were rare crew members, not limited to pirates, but also found on military ships, scientific vessels, cargo ships, and even whalers. Some traveled with their husbands while others disguised themselves as men. The first documented case was Jeanne Baret, a botanist who sailed around the world in 1766.
Baret’s ally and lover was scientist Philibert Commerson. “That said, the quick-wittedness and determination needed to sustain her disguise was Baret’s alone,” says Glynis Ridley, of the University of Louisville and author of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret. After a year and a half at sea, she was reportedly revealed as a woman in Tahiti—though she had probably aroused suspicion already. She did not relieve herself with the crew and the surgeon noted that her care for Commerson “did not seem natural for a male servant.”
Both de Freycinet and Baret were seriously transgressing social norms. Merely entering the company of men was seen as morally suspect, says Ridley. And both were also involved in scientific work. “Baret’s life spans a period that was one of intense debate about women’s exposure to scientific knowledge,” says Ridley. “A female stowaway was a curiosity, a female botanist was a breach in the natural order of things.” Baret became the first woman recipient of a French government pension for her contribution to science. Ultimately, says Ridley, “Baret refused to be bound by others’ limited expectations for someone of her sex and class.”
Read the stories of several women who bucked the natural order to sail away to the far corners of the earth at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Cristoforo Dall'Acqua)
