cover image: My Year Before the Mast

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My Year Before the Mast

1 Apr 1999

In 1933, a young Canadian woman rejected the expectations of society and her upper-class family and became a crew member aboard one of the last great four-masted sailing vessels that still plied the ocean.

It was not an easy task. Young Annette had to fight pressures from her family, rejection from schools of navigation, and doubts from ship owners. When she finally found a berth as an apprentice seaman, she faced hostility from officers and crew, who grumbled that she should be home "raising babies." In the end, however, Annette won their respect, taking in sails, standing night watches, hauling and coiling ropes all the tasks the men were doing, with no concession to a girl’s lesser strength.

My Year Before the Mast tells the story of Annette Brock Davis’s life on the sea as the first female crew member of a commercial sailing line. Her courage and determination to break into a closed male world are central to this book, but we cannot ignore the fact that, while this is a book about a woman’s struggle, it is also a book about the sea. Davis brings to life an era long gone, and introduces an incredible cast of characters the crew, officers, and passengers, each with his own foibles, humour, generosity, and flashes of meanness. But through it all, Annette emerges as the most remarkable character of them all.

canada biography women sailors 1912- davis, annette brock,

Authors

Annette Brock Davis

Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [218])
Control Number Identifier
CaOOCEL
Dewey Decimal Classification Number
387.5/092
Dewey Decimal Edition Number
21
General Note
Originally published: Toronto [Ont.] : Hounslow Press, c1999 Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
Geographic Area Code
n-cn---
ISBN
9781554882373 0888822073
LCCN
HD6073.S42
LCCN Item number
C3 1999eb
Modifying agency
CaBNVSL
Original cataloging agency
CaBNVSL
Physical Description | Extent
1 electronic text (216, [3] p., [8] p. of plates)
Published in
Canada
Publisher or Distributor Number
CaOOCEL
Rights
Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
System Control Number
(CaBNVSL)thg00602947 (OCoLC)696033948 (CaOOCEL)410614
System Details Note
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Transcribing agency
CaBNVSL

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