She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea [Hardcover]

Joan Druett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

History, Woman's Studies, Transportation, Maritime

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Books; 1St Edition edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760766916
• ISBN-13: 978-0760766910
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,745,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Back in the year 1984, on the picture-poster tropical island of Rarotonga, I literally fell into whaling history when I tumbled into a grave. A great tree had been felled by a recent hurricane, exposing a gravestone that had been hidden for more than one and a half centuries. It was the memorial to a young whaling wife, who had sailed with her husband on the New Bedford ship Harrison in the year 1845. And so my fascination with maritime history was triggered ... resulting in 18 books (so far). The latest -- number nineteen -- is a biography of a truly extraordinary man, Tupaia, star navigator and creator of amazing art.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Queens of the High Seas, November 29, 2000

By 

Shannon "elflass" (Dallas, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (Hardcover)

People may think that the womens' movement began in the 1960s or '70s, but the ladies whose stories are told in this book prove that female empowerment was alive and kicking on-board clipper ships and at the helm of pirate cutters long before Gloria Steinem was a gleam in her mother's eye. This book tells the stories of numerous fascinating female buccaneers who could be just as ruthless as their male counterparts and hold sway over crews of male sailors. Even if you're familiar with Anne Bonny and Mary Read, you will learn about many of their lesser-known compatriots and their world. This is an intriguing study of women in a career that has been generally relegated to the male realm in popular thought.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sea Legs or She Legs, September 17, 2002

By 

David Stapleton (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (Paperback)

In general this is a collection of stories of women associated with seafaring. Not all were 'captains', but that's not really material to the focus of the book, which is to provide the reader with ample examples of women who worked in the maritime trade (in one way or another).

The topics range from royalty and psuedo-royalty, to pirates, to wives. For the most part the women are of strong character and know what they want. Druett, writes well and the stories are entertaining and well researched.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough information, some of it very wrong, September 25, 2005

By 

Lilia (Lansdale, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (Hardcover)

I'm still in the middle of this book. The subject matter is interesting, but it skims over the tales too quickly (e.g., how and when were Rackham et al captured?). Druett also jumps around too much - mixing the tales of more than one woman who were unrelated in terms of place and time.

In addition, the book really bothered me for its lack of quality research. The author relied too much upon myths and stereotypes to embellish her story. In particular, the chapter about the Vikings contained a lot of misinformation, most from romanticized tales from the Victorian era. A 30-second web search would have told her that the Vikings didn't wear horned helmets, that they ate a lot more than plain, boiled meat (as traders and farmers, they had access to a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs, and spices), etc. They were a lot more sophisticated than Druett made out.

It's fine as light reading and a quick overview of the topic, but the devil's in the details.