In past times it was thought unlucky for women to go to sea. This is because they might distract the crew who were away from their wives and women onshore. The crew not keeping watch on the sea might also anger Neptune, God of the sea, and cause storms. However, naked women alledgedly calm or shy the sea which is why so many ship's figureheads were women with bare breasts.
Here is a list of some famous women known to have been at sea:
Artemisia I of Caria is Queen of Halicarnassus, a successful naval commander. (500 BC)
Princess Sela - the first recorded Norwegian pirate. (400 AD)
The Gesta Danorum, Danish history, lists women as captains and pirates, including Rusla, the Red Woman, for her bloodthirsty reputation of taking no prisoners (1200s)
Jeanne de Clisson, privateer targeting French ships, the Lioness of Britain (1300s)
Sayyida al Hurra ( السيدة الحرة) turned to piracy and ruled as queen of Tétouan (1500s)
Gráinne Ní Mháille, lord of the Ó Máille Dynasty in Ireland, leader on land and sea (1530)
Besty and Hannah Miller are Captains / Managers of the brig Clytus (1700s)
Anne Bonny and Mary Read, most famous female pirates in the Caribbean (1700s)
Hannah Snell / James Gray, first recorded woman in the Royal Navy (1723 to 1792)
Jeanne Baret, working botanist, travelled by ship around the world (1740 to 1807)
Mary Anne Talbot, a lady in the Royal Navy (1778-1808)
Mary Lacy / William Chandler, first known female shipwright (1740 to 1801)
Ching Shih, former prostitute on a floating brothel in Canton, later widow of Cheng I, she commanded over 1,800 pirate ships, and 80,000 men (1801)
Laskarina Bouboulina, naval commander & national heroine in the Greek war of independence (1820s)
Elizabeth "Betsy" Miller, Scottish merchant, first female captain (1792 to 1864)
First black woman to serve in the Royal Navy, named William Brown (served 1804 to 1815)
Anne Jane Thornton, from Donegal in Ireland, worked on ships as Jim Thornton (1817–1877)
RNLI National Heroine, Grace Darling, rescues men from shipwreck (1815 to 1842)
Dora Walker was the first female boat skipper on the Yorkshire Coast - (1890 to 1980)
Victoria Drummond, first woman marine engineer in the UK (1894 to 1978)
Women in shipbuilding, during the Second World War (served 1939 to 1945)
Marion Pettigrew, engineer officer on P&O merchant ship (served 1970s and 80s)
First trained woman in the RNLI was 18-year-old Elizabeth Hostvedt (1969)
Linda Craig Forbes, first woman deck officer, (1970s)
Chojnowska-Liskiewicz, first woman to circumnavigate the globe (1976)
Naomi James, first woman to sail single-handed around the world via Cape Horn (1978)
Clare Francis, first woman to skipper a yacht in Whitbread Round the World Race (1978)
Kay Cottee, first woman solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe (1988)
First all-female crew to the finish line of the Whitbread Round the World Race (1990)
Dee Caffari, first woman, single-handedly circumnavigates the globe against prevailing winds and currents (2006) In 2009, first woman to sail the world in both directions.
Jeanne Socrates, oldest person to sail around the world alone, non-stop, unassisted aged 77 (2013)
First female submariners in RN subs. Lieutenants Maxine Stiles, Alexandra Olsson and Penny Thackray (2014)
Ellen MacArthur : world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe (2019)
Laura Dekker, youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly, aged 16 (2012)
Four Yorkshire working mums, oldest female crew to cross the Atlantic (2016)
Jude Terry, first female admiral in Royal Navy history (2022)
Leanne Clark, the only female Master Ropemaker in Chatham Dockyard (current day)
4 women crew members in Scarborough RNLI (2023)
Statistics about women working at sea (2022)
There are 1.2 million seafarers across the world.
Women make up 2% of the crewing workforce, mainly in the cruise industry.
1.28% of certified seafarers across the globe are women.
A 2021 report estimated 24,059 women seafarers in total.
Females in search and rescue teams account for 10% of the workforce, 600 women in RNLI.
