A Man's NavyP

Paul Hodkinson explores the role of women in Nelson's Navy

On the modern,electronic, equal opportunity battlefield, women are able to demonstrate their prowess as warriors alongside the men.This is both an ancient and a modern phenomenon. But between Boudicea and jump-jets there was a hiatus in which,for a variety of reasons,front-line warfare was deemed an unsuitable occupation for women... or was there?

We have all heard of the famous women buccaneers, in the golden age of piracy, so why don't we know anything about women fight ing yard arm to yard arm in Nel son's Navy? Well, firstly because there weren't very many of themthey were actively discouraged in the Georgian navy - but mostly it was our Victorian forefathers, those denizens of moral rectitude, who successfully expunged them from the record.This makes researching their careers that bit more difficult.

Women such as William Bwum, for example, a black woman who, in 1815, had served in the Queen Charlotte for 11 years, most of them as Captain of the Foretop;a respon sible position held only by the quickest, most agile, experienced seamen afloat. Whilst officially un- recognised as a woman there can be little doubt that her messmates