Actually there was no such superstition at the time, at all, and women were commonplace aboard RN vessels. (In fishing communities around the coast of Britain there certainly was a widespread superstition that women aboard the fishing boats, or even having anything to do with the fishing boats, would bring bad luck; this superstition lingered well into living memory. But sea fishing, in which women genuinely had no business, was another matter entirely.)
Captains frequently took their wives (and occasionally their mistresses) aboard. The bosun, carpenter and gunner were 'standing warrant officers', i.e. were appointed to the ship and stayed with it whether it was in commission or laid up 'in ordinary', so the ship was their permanent home. They tended to be rather older than most of the crew (deep-water sailing was a young man's trade) and therefore typically married; their families lived on board with them as a matter of course, the ship being their home too. The junior midshipmen lived in the 'gunroom' under the supervision of the gunner, and as a typical gunner would have been a competent middle-aged man with a competent middle-aged wife, it was taken for granted that she would help look after the really young lads.
Other petty officers and Marine NCOs might have their wives aboard with permission from the captain, and many captains (though not, in the books, Jack) gave such permission quite widely. When in 1848 the Naval General Service Medal was retrospectively issued to anyone still Iiving who had served between 1789 and 1840, three women applied for it - and were turned down, not because the issuing board didn't believe they hadn't been aboard or hadn't done real service, but because letting them have it would have left the Navy Board 'exposed to innumerable applications of the same nature'. (Though they were happy to issue the medal to Daniel Tremendous Mackenzie for his 'service' at the Battle of the Glorious First of June - he was born on board HMS Tremendous during the battle.) This state of affairs is clearly shown in O'Brian's books.
Although O'Brian decided to make Jack opposed on principle to carrying too many women aboard, there are still women aboard on many occasions. And if you've ever read The Far Side of the World, one of the novels on which the movie is based, you must be aware that one of the important characters is Mrs Horner, the gunner's wife. Jack gives permission for the gunner to bring his wife on board for the voyage assuming her to be a typical gunner's wife, middle-aged, comfortable and competent to look after the 'squeakers' of the midship men's berth, and is aghast to find out too late that on the contrary she is young and seductive - and goes on to have a disastrous affair with Mr Midshipman Hollom. How could you possibly have read TFSotW and not noticed any of that plot line?
Women of the time were not the brash and forward type
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Good grief. Apart from the complete non sequitur, the books (and real Regency life in general, on shore and afloat) were full of brash and forward women.
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ethics_gradient
7 years ago
Fascinating reply, as ever. Thankyou for the detail, even though I wasn't the one who asked for it.
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