Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives

I enjoyed it. NIce history, lots of great references. Maybe not a lot of surprises, but a concise summary and details to back up the claims. Definitely a good 2nd tier reference work after you've covered all of the common, familiar texts.

I have been reading about pirates for some time. Bought lots of books on it, made a lot of research so, when I opened this book I wasn't expecting much news... boy, I was wrong.David Cordingly opens the door for a deep study into the modern history of seafaring, not only making us better understand the participation of women during the maritime expansion, but also understanding the life they had back then as a whole.I recommend it to anyone interested in women's history, modern time history, cultural history or pin pointed sea history!

It was written more like a textbook than the exciting tales should have been. It made the characters seem a little dull.

Not a whole lot about pirate queens, lots of other interesting info thou

I'm playing a tabletop RPG "Seventh Sea" and wanted to read up on women on the high seas. I found this book quite informative and very entertainingly written. We even drew some character traits from some of the historical sailors. A highly recommended read for anyone interested in an overview of the grand centuries of naval and whaling fleets and the age of lighthouses. There is even an entertaining chapter on mermaids.

A great read for men or women. Interesting stories about the woman during the days of pirates, Blackbeard and his like. A rousing yarns.

Considering the title of the book is "Seafaring Women", I expected the book to be about women who were at sea. The first chapter is about prostitutes (though, to be totally fair, there was a passing mention of a floating brothel, so those women were *technically* on the water). The second chapter is about press gangs and conscription and how men had to leave their families behind. The third chapter is about a fictional woman, created and invented by a man.I got 60 pages into this and only read one story about one actual woman, and she murdered her own baby after cheating on her husband.

bought this for my seafaring daughter and she loved it. She jumped right in and started reading it straight away.

David Cordingley's books are always good. Apart from the detail of information they are rich in entertainment - you are always guaranteed to come away having learnt something new.

came promptly, bit heavy going reading

Interesting historical book, interesting read.

Very interesting, and some awesome heroic/brave women who I imagine would have had movies made about them by now if they were men.

good