Tlie Saifor's Wife Ashore by Joan Druett ince the days of the Vikings it has been an intrinsic part of maritime understanding that seafarers ' women stayed on shore, looking after the household while their menfolk were away. It didn't matter that back on the farm a woman might roll up her sleeves and pitch hay alongside the men , or that a townswoman might keep the accounts of her husband 's business. The only relevance offem ales to the sea and its traffic, supposedly, was mending clothes and nets for absent fathers, brothers and hu sbands, and praying for their safe return . There was some logic in assigning sailors' wives a role of endless waiting. Not only did home affairs need some kind of custodian, but throughout much of maritime history competition for markets and goods was so savagely unremitting that seafaring was often a lot like war. Even small merchant ships were forced to be well-armed, and the most ordinary seamen had to know their gunnery, even if all they had to defend was a load of salt cod, defeat meaning, at the very least, being forced to serve on a rival nation 's ships. If the Turks or Arabs caught a man, he might be a slave for life. If the captors were Spanish, he could be condemned as a heretic and burned to a particularly nasty death. The story of Mary Hi ghway, born in Dover, England, in 1632, and married to a sailor, Edward Coxere, in 1655 , seems to illustrate that life on the briny was much too risky for women , and that they were far better left at home, managing household affairs. Seven weeks after the wedding, Edward (called "Ned") sailed off as gunner in the Diligence of London, at the rate of forty-eight shillings a month. And, what 's more, he took all the spare household cash with him , to invest in trade goods as a "venture"-though, as headmitted in hi s memoirs, it " leftmy wife very bare of money." Somehow, Mary was expected to cope. It is unlikely that she expected anything different, for she was used to such circumstances, her father, Richard Highway, and her brother, Thomas Highway, being seamen just li ke her new husband. Ned 's voyage proved an interesting one. His captain was a crackpot, ordering a boat lowered every time he felt the urge, so he could be rowed to the nearest beach , "w he re he tucked down his breeches and eased him self." Returning very drunk from being entertained by the Governor of Tangier, he declared that the wind was fair and they must be
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off, although the air was dead calm. Solemnly, the men all pretended to obey. They "weighed" the anchor, leav ing the cable slack, and loosed the limp sails while the captain roared instructions to the helmsman. "And we fast at anchor. A very noticeable whimsy of a commander," remarked Ned. Then , when they did get to sea, they were overtaken by a storm. By the time it was over they were floating, crippled, off the Barbary coast. Coxere managed to get the ship under jury ri g, but "all our labour and hopes was in vain ," for the Diligence was promptly seized by a Spanish man-of-war. On arrival at Malaga, however, Ned was able to "slily" make his escape in the boat which had brought some whores on board. Then, he talked the skipper of a Fleming ship into taking him into the crew, and so Ned made his way to Amsterdam and from there to Dover, arriving in May 1656. He had lost everything-hi s books, his clothes, and rus navigational instruments. The only profit from nine months of "troublesome voyage" was a bolt of linen cloth that he had bought with hi s wages in Holland.
And throughout that nine months, Mary had spent most of the time alone. Both her father and her brother had gone off on voyage, so that "corning into our house, I fo und only my poor wife and a young child of three weeks old in a crad le. "She, being surprised , could hardly speak to me, for she knew not before whether I was dead or alive. I laid down my pack, and rested myself, and had my relations come about me with joy. My wife soon turned the holland [cloth] into money, which we had then occasion for. As I remember, it sold for nine pounds, which was then our stock; for my wife, having good friends , with her own industry kept me out of debt. " And so, not only had Mary endured pregnancy and birth alone, but "with her own industry," had kept the little family solvent. It was the story of her entire life. Within weeks Ned went off again , this time with her brother, who had been given command of a small vessel , the Friendship of London. They were headed for Venice to load with wine and currants, but unfortunatel y, they were taken by a Turkish vessel, the Vice-Admiral of
Th e bark Massach usetts dries her sails on New Bedford' s waterfront , while her discharged cargo of whale oil waits ashore in this photograph by G.D . Kingman made about 1870 . Th e girls are probably related to the gentlemen- -daughrers or granddaughters of an offi cer or owner of the bark. Photo courtesy the author.
SEA HISTORY 85 , SUMMER 1998