Hen frigates1998

A "hen frigate," traditionally, was any ship with the captain's wife on board, and Hen Frigates is the dramatic and largely untold story of the enterprising women who sailed on oceangoing merchant ships throughout the last century. These vessels were miniature worlds - wildly colorful, dangerous, and, most of all, romantic - where voyaging was a strenuous challenge under even the best of conditions.

Matters were sometimes "rather worse for going to sea," maritime historian and Fulbright Fellow Joan Druett writes, as disease was prevalent and shipboard accidents were common. Gales, hurricanes, typhoons, collisions, and fire at sea were feared by all on board. Some wives survived shipwreck, but many succumbed, as happened following the wreck of the Golden Star in 1861, when Captain Staples...