First US Edition -- The first comprehensive book on whaling wives at sea written for a general audience.
Joan Druett offers an informed and accessible account of little known stories of wives of whaling captains who accompanied their husbands on long and arduous journeys to bring whale oil and blubber to New England. Surprisingly, by 1850 roughly a sixth of all whaling vessels carried the captains' wives. Invariably the only woman aboard a very cramped ship, they endured harsh conditions to provide companionship for their husbands, and sometimes even exerted a strong unofficial moral influence on a rowdy crew. Joan Druett provides captivating portraits of many of these wives and the difficult circumstances they endured.
Petticoat Whalers, first published in New Zealand in 1991, has been out of print since 1995. The Kendall Whaling Museum's L. Byrne Waterman Award citation states: "It is not insignificant that Petticoat Whalers is already an indispensable classic, and [Druett's] other books and articles have earned the status of Basic Necessities on any well-stocked shelf of maritime narratives and reference works."
From the reviews of Joan Druett's Hen Frigates --
"Mythology aside, women have been largely left out of nautical history, which makes Hen Frigates, with its humble heroines, a refreshing story that might have silently slipped away . . . a valuable collective portrait of intrepid seafaring women -- and an image of domestic challenge that would leave even Martha Stewart spinning." -- New York Times Book Review
"An altogether fascinating account of the joys and perils of the women who sailed with their ship-captain husbands . . . seen through Druett's lively and sometimes poignant accounts, the word that comes to mind to describe the women is that somewhat old-fashioned one: 'spunky.' " -- Boston Globe
"From the horrifying to the amusing and the mundane, Druett has mined these stories from personal journals and letters kept by seafaring wives . . . In her well-written study, Druett ably demonstrates how these women endured isolation to form their own unique life experience at sea. Informative and entertaining reading." -- Library Journal
"Druett paints a vivid portrait of the unique challenges faced by seafaring females . . . The breezy narrative provides the reader with an intriguing entree into an exotic lifestyle choice practiced during the bygone era of sailing ships." -- Booklist
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A prize-winning maritime historian and writer of historical novels, JOAN DRUETT's nonfiction books dealing with the sea include Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail (2001), She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (2000), and Hen Frigates (1998).
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