Within maritime communities across the early modern Atlantic world, women have always held an important role. While most of the men would be away from home at sea, whether on a privateering or merchant vessel, or a pirate ship, women have been vital to these seaboard communities, as they have been able to maintain the shops, taverns, and raising children. A gendered analysis is crucial to understanding how maritime working-class communities operated while the seafaring men went off, either against their will or not. Being that sailors did not conform to the capitalist quota of investing money often, a lot of sailors found themselves spending large sums of money rather quickly, on alcohol, women, and other cheap thrills that provided short-term enjoyment, since a life at sea was a dangerous one. In a cartoon titled Dispatch, or Jack preparing for sea, it depicts a sailor sitting in the lap of a young woman, with one hand on the woman’s companion’s …show more content…
Moving in with her sister in Wapping, London after her parents died, Hannah soon found herself married to a Dutch sailor. While this Dutch sailor James Summs was nothing but trouble, he didn’t leave Hannah for other women before impregnating her. Snell’s daughter only lived for about six or seven months, and shortly thereafter her daughter’s death, she decided to steal her brother-in-law’s clothes, adopt his name, and join the military. It wasn’t until later in her service that she revealed herself to be a woman, and was supported by her crew, but was ultimately discharged. However, she gained popularity from the media, and performed military exercises typically carried out by marines in front of crowds. While this occurrence did not happen often, disguising oneself as a man became an option of work to some women brave enough in the maritime communities, so they could potentially support themselves one way or