Posted by Jane Elizabeth on August 07, 1997 at 11:47:40:
A while back you posted a query about women going to sea. I've just read about a book recently published that sounds fascinating. It's called "A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail" (Northeastern University Press) by Catherine Petrowski. Hathorn kept a meticulous journal during the voyage she took with her sea-captain husband after their marriage in 1854. They sailed down the coast of America, then to England. She returned home to Maine at the end of the year to give birth.
Although this is 40 years after our pet era, I don't imagine life aboard ship was very different. The biggest difference may have been the lack of threat from war and pirates, although I'm no maritime historian. Certainly the storm brewing over slavery must have affected a voyage down the coast delivering goods through the South.
I'm hoping my library orders this book. Meanwhile, if anyone reads it, please let me know.
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