Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Lady Tars The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot by Hannah Snell The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot by Hannah Snell. At meal time, sailors divided themselves into messes. Each mess generally consisted of six men, who divided a set portion of food among themselves and sometimes cooked it. In William Falconer's 1780 An Universal Dictionary of the Marine , his definition of the 'mess' is immediately followed by the definition for 'mess-mate': Messmates were self selecting. This meant that sailors chose which companions to spend time with, and which they could avoid. By giving sailors the opportunity to change their messmates about once a month, officers gave them the agency to reduce shipboard conflict. For common sailors, messmates were family. Olaudah Equiano devoted pages of his Interesting Narrative to one of his closest friends. A young enslaved African held aboard the Aetna in 1760, Equiano's upbringing, education, ambitions, and beliefs were entirely different from his European shipmates. Among them, 'there was also one Daniel Queen, about forty years of age, a man very well educated, who messed with me on board this ship.' Queen taught Equiano how to shave and read, and gave him instruction in Christianity. Jemmat's tale was fictional, but this sort of comfort and care was common among the brotherhood of mariners. Finding a spot in a welcoming mess was essential to social survival at sea. In Hannah Snell's authorized 1750 biography The Female Soldier , the ghost writer states that 'as she was very tractable, sprightly, and wiling, she soon was caressed by her messmates, for whom she would very readily either wash or mend their linen, or stand cook, as occasion required.' [5] By leveraging her skills learned ashore as a woman to relieve men of their more feminine tasks, Snell carved out a place in the mess and assured herself a niche in the Wooden World. Messmates were central to sailors' lives. So much so that perhaps the strange practice of frying watches was an extension of the mess ashore. The ceremonial practice of frying watches was a communal activity in which a small group of sailors would participate, and that small group was most likely a mess. Detail from Sailors Carousing and Frying Watches , Julius Caesar Ibbetson, date unknown, Yale Center for British Art The social benefits of the mess system also encouraged the socially toxic aspects of cliques. When Jacob Nagle's vessel took aboard soldiers, the redcoats were put on a parallel mess system. The japes of the mariners combined with the natural difficulties of eating afloat to make the voyage a miserable one for the poor soldiers: Generally, a mess would send a single member to collect the food for the entire mess, which may have been shared out of a single bowl or plate. Sailors appear to have individually owned their utensils, as several excavations have turned up pewter spoons carved with the initials of common sailors. [9] Given the size of staved tankards from the period, these may also have been shared among the mess. Detail including staved tankard from The Wapping Landlady , Francis Hayman, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London The communal and representational nature of the mess enabled manipulation, and officers had to find new ways to combat them. Prince was soon promoted to purser and steward, and instituted a system to verify the identity of the sailors who came to receive their rations for the day: 'I would not allow no man anything to eat or drink without a numbered ticket, with every man's name in the mess signed by the clerk.' [10] Officers also had to prevent theft between the messes. The cliques created by the mess system encouraged rivalries between them, which might contribute to shipboard conflict. The Massachusetts privateer Defence , sunk in 1779, appears to have instituted a system to combat this. Shelley Owen Smith included an illustration of mess tags in the 1986 doctorate dissertation The Defence: Life at Sea as Reflected in an Archaeological Assemblage from an Eighteenth Century Privateer . [11] In exploring the mess system, we see the contradictory nature of sailors' social lives. They were intensely personal and nearly familial in their care for one another, but could just as easily victimize anyone outside their overlapping circles of social connection. The mess system allowed sailors to cross incredible gulfs of cultural difference, while at the same time enabling them to take advantage of their shipmates. As with most of the sailors' world, the mess system reveals a contradictory society of conflict and acceptance. Lewisham Heritage. Originally joined the army but deserted over an unfair punishment to which she was subject. She then joined the marines and was wounded several times in the Battle of Pondicherry. She later worked on stage where she would wear her uniform, do military drills and sing patriotic songs. Hannah Snell in uniform. Started her military career in the army disguised as a boy servant to an officer. After his death at the Battle of Valenciennes, she deserted and was pressed into the Royal Navy. She served as a cabin boy, and fought at the Battle of the Glorious First of June where she was wounded. Engraving of Mary Anne Talbot. Mary died in 1801 and was buried at St Paul, Deptford, Kent, on 3 May 1801. Her husband, Josias Slade, died in 1814 and was also buried at St Paul, Deptford, Kent, on 13 February 1814. In his will and codicil, he only mentions his son, John Slade, and daughter, Margaret, now wife of Joseph Ward (Margaret Lacey Ward died the following year and was buried at St Paul, Deptford, Kent, on 23 April 1815). The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot by Hannah Snell. Hannah Snell (1723-1792), Mary Lacy (1740-1801) and Mary Anne Talbot (1778-1808) were all ladies who served in the Royal navy and left memoirs of their experiences. AOS Naval Non Fiction. Year. AOS Naval Non Fiction Author Hannah Snell Mary Lacy Mary Anne Talbot Prev Next. Related Pages. © 2008-2021 David Hayes (Astrodene) By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies. For more details of these cookies and how to disable them, see our cookie policy. The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot by Hannah Snell. Given the mountain of evidence and research regarding facial hair in the eighteenth century, and the years of debate over whether and how prevalent beards were during the period, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the debate has been settled. Beards aren't a thing. Perhaps more appropriately, I should say that beards aren't a thing sailors chose to wear, except in the most dire circumstances. In the hundreds of images I've examined, only four clearly show beards. Without._from the London Gazette of 11 June, 1757 , T. Ewart, Yale University Lewis Walpole Library. A new way to pay the National-Debt , James Gillray, 1786, British Museum. Plate from Histoire des Naufrages , engraved by Marillier, 1788, John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images. Frost on the Thames , Samuel Collings, 1788-1789, Yale Center for British Art. In all of these situations, sailors are depicted ashore and worse for wear. The beards represent their rock-bottom situation. The first two shown here are political cartoons in which the artist is specifically calling out the ministry for neglecting the sailors that protect their nation, and so condemning them to poverty. This appears to be the case in what few references there are in sailors' memoirs, too. Ebenezer Fox, writing many decades after his experiences, claimed that prisoners on the hulk Jersey had 'their beards never cut, excepting occasionally with a pair of shears, which did not improve their comeliness, though it might add to their comfort.' [1] Despite their condition, they still sought to cut away what facial hair they could. I've found only one case in which a sailor chose to wear a beard in this period. When John Nicol learned that a press gang awaited him back at port, 'I had allowed my beard to grow long and myself to be very dirty to be as unlikely as possible when the man-of-war boats came on board to press the crew.' [2] He believed, perhaps rightly, that the Royal Navy had no interest in taking a dirty, bearded soul that might infect their ship. While it is likely that Nicol did more than grow a beard to appear disheveled and undesirable, it was the only specific action he relates in this goal. Nicol thought that the beard was essential to looking 'very dirty.' Beards continue to be depicted in movies, television, and video games about the eighteenth century, and continue to be worn by historical reenactors portraying average sailors. Some of this is obstinacy, with more than a few online forums being inundated with bearded fellows who refuse to give up against historical evidence. Some of it is genuine misunderstanding of historical evidence. The word 'beard' could sometimes be misleadingly used as referring to what we might recognize as scruff or a five o'clock shadow. In Hannah Snell's memoirs, she is said to have been ridiculed by her fellow tars (who were unaware she was a woman posing as a man) 'for want of having a rough beard as they had.' [3] Some sailors undoubtedly did wear sideburns, as depicted by Copley in his masterpiece Watson and the Shark . Watson and the Shark , John Singleton Copley, 1778, National Gallery of Art The average Jack Tar went clean shaven. He might be forced to grow out a beard when wrecked on a distant shore, or destitute on the street, but by far the overwhelming majority of sailors took a razor to their facial hair. --- [1] Fox, Ebenezer, The Adventures of Ebenezer Fox in the Revolutionary War , Boston: Charles Fox, 1847, page 108. [2] Nicol, John, The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner , edited by Tim Flannery, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997, page 162. [3] Snell, Hannah, The Female Soldier; Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell , London: R. Walker, 1750, in The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell, Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot , Tucson, Arizona: Fireship Press, 2008, page 26. Hannah Snell, Royal Marine. One of the most well-known cross dressers who went to sea was Hannah Snell, born in 1723, to a hosier/dyer and his wife on Fryer Street in Worcester, England. Her grandfather was Captain-Lieutenant Snell who took part in the conquest of Dunkirk and the battle of Blenheim, a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession. Hannah was one of nine children. Except for one of her sisters, all nine grew up to become soldiers, sailors, or the wives of such. Hannah reports playing army as a girl; no surprise, having six brothers. She formed a company of young soldiers among her playfellows, of which she was chief. “Young Amazon Snell’s Company” would parade through the town of Worcester. After the death of her parents, Hannah went to London to live with her sister and brother-in-law James Gray, a carpenter in Wapping. At twenty- one she married a Dutch sailor, James Summs, who abandoned her when she was seven months pregnant. The baby didn’t live long and Hannah set out to find him, taking her brother in law’s name, and a suit of his clothes. She claims to have enlisted in the army but soon deserted, then traveled south to Portsmouth and enlisting in the marines, where she served aboard the sloop-of-war Swallow . The Swallow was sent to India with Admiral Boscawen’s fleet and Snell was sent ashore to fight the French in Pondicherry. She was wounded numerous times. One wound was to the groin. She removed the ball and dressed it herself, with the help of an Indian nurse, so her sex would not to be discovered. As soon as her health was restored she was sent on board the Tartar Pink to perform the duties of a common sailor, then was assigned to the Eltham man-of-war which set sail for Bombay. Hannah Snell, Royal Marine in Captain Graham’s company, Colonel Fraser’s regiment. Hannah Snell lived and worked as a man for more than four years. When at last she returned to her sister and brother-in-law’s home in London, she quit her disguise — then capitalized on her bold experiences by selling her story to the publisher, Robert Walker, who wrote and printed it. (Like many women of her time, Hannah could read but she couldn’t write proficiently.) Hannah also went on tour, re-enacting military drills before a thrilled audience, achieving significant fame. Hannah then applied for – and was granted –a pension for her war injuries. Discovering that her estranged husband, James Summs, had been executed for murder, Hannah was free to marry again. She did so, outlived that husband, then married a third time and gave birth to a son. She lived on her pension, and on the money she made as a street peddler, to the age of 86 when she was committed to Bedlam hospital with “the most deplorable infirmity” (which might have been dementia and seizures secondary to neurosyphilis or meningovascular syphilis –forms of tertiary syphilis that present 4-25 years after infection). If this was the most deplorable infirmity the former marine suffered from, she might have contracted it from her first husband. Hannah died in Bedlam in 1792. The Female Soldier or The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell was written, printed and sold by R. Walker, of London, in 1750. Some of the incidents he might have exaggerated, confabulated or otherwise made up, but by and large, her story is believable. Tales of women soldiers and sailors, disguised as men, were popular among Britain’s lower classes, who bought them in on the street in the form of inexpensive broadsheets and ballads. The publication of Hannah Snell’s story gave wider recognition among the middle and upper classes; people who could afford to buy books. The protagonists of the many stories and ballads of cross dressing women were said to be in search of boyfriends or husbands who had run off to war, or pressed into the navy. This became a formulaic story, guaranteed to sell broadsheets and ballads. This motivation was likely interjected by male writers who could imagine no other reason a young woman might want to join the army or the navy. And why would they, you ask? For the same reasons a young man might: The paycheck, the billet, the food, the camaraderie, the adventure, the chance to be part of a greater cause, the opportunity for travel — and the possibility of meeting a man (or in some cases a woman) worthy of your love? Most people lived hand to mouth, and struggled to get by. If you didn’t have money, a title, or a good man to support you, life was very hard for an 18 th century woman. Who wouldn’t sell a petticoat and go to sea? All ye noble British spirits. That midst dangers glory sought, Let it lessen not your merit, That a woman bravely fought… The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell, Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot, with a Forward by Tom Grundner . Fireship Press, 2008. Tom Grunder encouraged my writing about the crossdressing Patricia MacPherson, and gave me this book to help me with my research. For more salty history, visit my fellow shipmates blogging about all things nautical: