Steady as She Goes: Women's Adventures at Sea (Adventura Series) [Paperback]

Barbara Sjoholm (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Adventura Series | Publication Date: September 25, 2003

Veteran seafarers and anyone who has dreamed of running away to sea in her very own boat or simply savored the smell of the salty air on the water’s edge will be inspired by this well-crafted and varied collection. Steady as She Goes is both a testament to women’s enduring relationship with the sea and a gripping and illuminating read. Whether commercial fishing in Alaska’s unforgiving waters, racing tall ships off the coast of Australia, kayaking in the enchanting Sea of Cortez, or learning the antiquated mechanics of a New York City fireboat, these women work and play at sea, spinning harrowing adventure yarns and relaying quiet moments of revelation surrounded by the vastness of the ocean. With both original and reprinted material from such noted writers as Linda Greenlaw, Jill Fredston, Tania Aebi, Bernadette Bernon (former editor of Cruising World ), devorah major (San Francisco’s poet laureate), Andromeda Romano-Lax, and Deborah Scaling Kiley, among others, this is the first anthology dedicated to contemporary women's adventures at sea. This unique and long-overdue collection shatters—once and for all—the myth that the sea is solely the domain of men.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of salty yarns by and about women who sail calls itself the first of its kind. Most of its stories, like Deborah Scaling Kiley and Meg Noonan's gripping "Survival at Sea" and Penelope S. Duffy's "Big Storm, Small Boat," are adventure tales set on the ocean at its angriest and most dangerous. Other selections give a fascinating glimpse of the women who make their living on boats. Linda Greenlaw (The Lobster Chronicles) writes about the daily rituals aboard the Hannah Boden in her fishing story, "Swordfish." Like the other authors represented here, Greenlaw writes as though she sees herself as a captain first, a woman second. She's at ease with her place of authority in a world dominated by burly men, and her minority status shows only in passing, with, "Fishing gear manufacturers don't make gloves small enough for women, so I use ladies' gardening gloves." Other highpoints include Jessica DuLong's stylish "Below Decks," tracing her lifelong enthrallment with mechanical doodads, from her father's auto shop to the diesel-powered John J. Harvey, a retired fireboat on which she's a crew member plying the Hudson River, and Jennifer Karuza Schile's story of her fishing family, "Happy Jack and the Vis Queens." Not all selections are as strong as these, and some are fairly amateurish. Still, the anthology should find a readership among the many fans of maritime nonfiction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In this anthology, women writers render in vivid and often moving terms their stories of shipwrecks, busy harbors, big oceans, and small boats. Some traveled alone, while others had families or partners. One gloried in her work as a mechanic in a noisy engine room, while another rowed long distances along the coast, reveling in her strong muscles. They were novices or lifelong sailors, captains or crew, aboard to make a living or to realize a dream before settling down. One woman learned an important lesson when she made a youthful error in judgment during a yacht race. Another made a naturalist's journey to the Sea of Cortez. Yet another worked on an Alaskan fishing boat. Some writers swagger, while others muse; each essay is well written, in a unique voice. Most are original to this volume, though a few are reprinted or excerpted (one rather abruptly). The 20 essays, and the fine introduction by the editor, cover such a wide range of experience that it seems at first that the only thing they have in common is water (and that the women all lived long enough to write about their experiences in or on it). Running through all of the selections are threads of quiet courage, an often stunning originality, self-confidence, presence of mind, and a degree of vitality that should appeal strongly to teenage readers.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press; First Printing edition (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580050948
• ISBN-13: 978-1580050944
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jessica DuLong, a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed merchant marine officer is one of the world's only female fireboat engineers. She's also a journalist whose work has appeared in NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL, ROLLING STONE, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, COSMOGIRL!, PARENTING, TODAY'S MACHINING WORLD, MARITIME REPORTER & ENGINEERING NEWS, and other publications. Her passion for the Hudson River took shape at her post in the diesel exhaust-filled engine room of retired New York City fireboat JOHN J. HARVEY (www.fireboat.org), where temperatures climb to 130 degrees. She and her crewmates were recognized in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD following their service pumping water to firefighters at Ground Zero following the September Eleventh attacks, and were featured as characters in NEW YORKER illustrator Maira Kalman's award-winning children's book FIREBOAT: THE HEROIC ADVENTURES OF THE JOHN J. HARVEY. Today, the 1931 vessel, dubbed "Ambassador of the Hudson," operates as a living museum, offering free public trips around New York harbor and an annual whistle-stop tour up the Hudson River, with DuLong at the engine room controls.

www.myriverchronicles.com
www.fireboat.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Great!, August 31, 2011

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Leslie Laagel (Vieux-Thann, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steady as She Goes: Women's Adventures at Sea (Adventura Series) (Paperback)

If you like to be on the water...whether in a canoe, powerboat, or sailing along with the wind....This is a great book to read. I took it with me on a dive trip to the Red Sea, and I finished it in three days. The stories were engaging and showed that women have the power to accomplish all their dreams. Courageous and inspiring. I highly recommend it!