The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-18
sEA-FARING WOMEN.
Brave Maids and Matrons Who Have
Followed n Life on the Ocean
Wave.

The sailors superstitious fears that
woman's presence on shipboard in
vites i'll luck has failed to deter wo-
men whose hearts yearned for the sea
from gratifying this desire. The pages
of the maritime history of the world
contains the names of many matrons
and girls in various periods who, dis
guised as men, have followed a life on
the ocean wave. The majority of them
not only proved excellent sailors, but
even fought bravely with cutlass, pike
and pistol against the foes of their
native land.
They did not even shrink from sail
ing under the black flag; for the En-
glish women. Anne Bonny and Mary
Read. joined the buccaneers, the typ
ical pirates of the Antilles. in order to
gain booty to their hearts content
\ German writer gives a number
OF names of women who have gone to
sea among which the following are
interesting:
Jean DC Belleville, to avenge her
husband. who was murdered in the
year $40. in Paris, fitted out a squad
ron OF ships and ravaged The coasts
of Normandy, burned castles and il
Illuminated the sea at night with the
glare of blazing villages. Jean de
Belleville was famed in her age as one
of the most beautiful women in Eu-
rome.
Sometimes jealousy has sent young
wife to sea in sailor garb The ballad
of bold Hannah Smell is known by all
sailors This woman was born in Lon
don in 1928 and, in the course of time
married German sailor Slmed Jacob
Summs, who squandered her little
property and deserted her. To
seek this faithless fellow, Han
nah donned mems attire and
went to sea. Her experiences
during her quest would fill volumes,
grave and gay. tragic and comic Incl
dents alternated. She served only on
English men-of-war. took part in nu-
merous battles and received several
wounds. After many years she had the
news that Jacob in punishment for a
serious crime had been put into a sack
and thrown into the sea somewhere in
France. From that time she left the
royal service where her disguise had
never been discovered and returned in
woman's clothes to London. The gov
eminent granted her an annual pension
of ESQ sterling for life. She is said to
I have gone on the stage afterwards and
acquitted herself admirably in sailor
| characters.
There are also high-hearted women
roic deeds while sailing the seas with
! their husbands. Among them Louise
Dittmar, the wife of the captain of the
Prussian steamer Edgar, deserves the
highest praise. On the fyay home the
entire crew. except the captain and
the helmsman, were attacked with
serious illness. The two men undertook
| to attend to the engine, while the wo-
man stood at the helm and steered the
ship. and this was done night and day,
almost without relief for weeksi The
steamer arrived in port gafely. after
seven of the crew had died on the pas
sage. In this case the valuable vessel
had actually been saved solely by the
captains wife; for it is difficult to es-
innate what the two me0 could have
done without her aid Captains whose
ship-owners forbid them TO take their
wives with them might aptly cite as
an opposing argument the example of
/ Louise Dittmar M. J. S.