Customer Reviews

Petticoat Whalers : Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920

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Explorations of women's relationship to the sea are rare - but growing. This book is a valuable foundation stone. I know this because of my involvement in women's maritime history, which has become a new and important sub-discipline of maritime history. It has a home at the Women and the Sea Network (which I co-ordinate), based at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich UK. Joan Druett's book was the first to explore women on whalers - who were there mainly as wives and daughters of captains. I especially enjoyed reading about 'gamming' - the way these women gossiped with each other when they met, being rowed over to each others ships, dressing up, taking tea, exchanging presents. I also enjoyed her novel Abigail (Macmillan New Zealand, 1988), which is about a very spirited woman, daughter of a whaling captain, and her connections with the whaling industry, incl whaling lovers. Reading both books in tandem gave me a very good picture of women in that branch of maritime industry. Thanks. I loved them both and look forward to reading Joan's new book Hen Frigates, about women on non-whaling ships.

Great information on the subject of the Whaling industry in general and even better genealogical information for those with family ties to the whaleship captains, wives & crew. I found a previously unknown family whaler in this book and discovered more whaling relatives within it's pages.
On a purely historical note the description of the hard lives led by all involved in the whale trade was interesting & informative.

I really would have liked to rate this book higher because I have an strong interest in the subject but can't because of the writing.

Two major problems. First this is a topic the cries out for a linear story but the author chops it up and jumps from time period to time period and back again. I assume her rational is that here sources are journals and diaries but if you are new to this literature it can be confusing.

Second problem is the omission of a brief history of U.S. Whalefishing, it was not refered to as Whaleing during it's active period. There is no mention of the fact the Whale Oil was the biggist American export until King Cotton of the early 19th. Century. The time period od which the author write is really the decline of Whalefishing in the United States and the of oil in western Pa., and it biproduct Kerosene that replaced Whale Oil as a fuel.