Pam C. (PamC) reviewed on + 117 more book reviews
From the dust cover:
Long before women had the right to vote, earn money, or have lives of their own, "she captains" bold women distinguished for courageous enterprise on the high seas- thrilled and terrorized their shipmates, performed acts of valor, and pirated with the best of their male counterparts.
These astonishing women were drawn to the ocean's beauty - and its danger. In her inimitable yarn-spinning way, award-winning historian Joan Druett reveals what life was like for these mariners infamously possessed of the "bodies of women and the souls of men." Irish raider Grace "Grania" O'Malley-sometimes called "the bald Grania" for her boyishly short hair - commanded three galleys and two hundred fighting men. Female pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read were wanted by the law. Armed to the teeth with cutlasses and pistols, they inspired awe and admiration as they swaggered around in fancy hats and expensive finery, killing many a man who cowered cravenly before them.
From the warrior queens of the sixth century B.C. to the women shipowners influential in opening the Northwest Passage, here is a cast of characters whose boldness and bravado will capture the imagination. Druett's rollicking rendition of their sea stories makes She Captains a history that is "great fun, exhilarating as a cruise on a windjammer, and no Dramamine required" (Newsday).
Long before women had the right to vote, earn money, or have lives of their own, "she captains" bold women distinguished for courageous enterprise on the high seas- thrilled and terrorized their shipmates, performed acts of valor, and pirated with the best of their male counterparts.
These astonishing women were drawn to the ocean's beauty - and its danger. In her inimitable yarn-spinning way, award-winning historian Joan Druett reveals what life was like for these mariners infamously possessed of the "bodies of women and the souls of men." Irish raider Grace "Grania" O'Malley-sometimes called "the bald Grania" for her boyishly short hair - commanded three galleys and two hundred fighting men. Female pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read were wanted by the law. Armed to the teeth with cutlasses and pistols, they inspired awe and admiration as they swaggered around in fancy hats and expensive finery, killing many a man who cowered cravenly before them.
From the warrior queens of the sixth century B.C. to the women shipowners influential in opening the Northwest Passage, here is a cast of characters whose boldness and bravado will capture the imagination. Druett's rollicking rendition of their sea stories makes She Captains a history that is "great fun, exhilarating as a cruise on a windjammer, and no Dramamine required" (Newsday).
