Stars to Steer By: Celebrating the 20th Century Women Who Went to Sea

336 pages

Chris O’Flaherty

Written with the serene flow of a gently rising tide on a still morning, Stars to Steer By is a delightful voyage through over two centuries of female sailors navigating their often tempestuous course towards equality in seafaring.

Julia Jones was introduced to sailing at the tender age of three, when her parents purchased her current yacht Peter Duck(formerly owned by Arthur Ransome). Inspired by the experiences and achievements of many female sailors she has met whilst navigating her own sailing journey, in this book Julia has captured a clear history of rebuttal, rejection, begrudging acceptance, achievement, mastery of sailing and conquering of the oceans – all of and by women.

Her first mini-biography is that of Anna Brassey, who in 1876 set off from Cowes with her husband, four children, two naval officers, an artist and others to sail 36,000 miles around the world. Anna became much more than the ‘trailing spouse’, taking an active part in the management and sailing of their yacht Sunbeam. But her contribution to seafaring history was much more profound through her eloquent and inspiring books that capture her adventures.

There follows a delightful sequence of pen-portraits of nearly a hundred pioneering female sailors who mirrored and then exceeded Anna Brassey’s achievements. They often follow a central theme of Julia’s that many people go sailing “simply for the pleasure of the movement through the water, or to have time by oneself in the fresh air.”

As she charts her course through time, some of Julia’s analysis is also delightfully ironic. An example is her well-made point that as far back as 1950, when social attitudes were often still vehemently anti-women at sea, Mary Blewitt published her simple pocket-sized volume Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen.  True to its title, her book became the definitive study guide for thousands of yachtsmen who sought deep-sea adventures away from their womenfolk. This female-authored seminal work is now on its 13th edition.

The older attitudinal challenges to women can be further exemplified through one anecdote related by Winifred Brown, who in 1937 set off from Scotland for Norway and Svalbard in her yacht Perula. On her return, she discovered that her local newspaper had already published her obituary, so convinced were they that she would perish at sea. Fortunately, with time and tide having flowed quickly since that event, Winifred’s experience can be contrasted with a more modern era of active societal encouragement (and huge sponsorship) achieved by, for example, Tracey Edwards MBE and her all-female crews around the world.

In this volume, Julia Jones has created a lovely thread of achievement that culminates in the present-day situation whereby gender doesn’t really matter at sea when sailing with modern navies or in westernised ships. Globally, more does remain to be done to ensure the complete integration of women in the world of seafaring (for example, too few ships carry firefighting suits/boots, or other PPE, appropriate for the averagely smaller female frame), and there remain far too many reports of onboard sexual harassment, predominantly against women. Skipping the politics of the very last chapter, progress has indeed been made through attitudinal change, underpinned by outstanding achievement, and is substantial when compared to the baseline of just 200 years ago, or even that of just 50 years ago.

This book is more than just a collection of ocean-defining biographies.  It is an inspiration both to the women who today wish to set forth on a maritime career, and also to any seafarer who wishes see the profound changes that can be delivered by sustained and dedicated challenges to the status quo (ante). A delightful read.