Hundreds of whaling captains and their wives once sailed together, initially in spite of seafaring and societal traditions and expectations
Capt. William Brewster and his wife, Mary, were among the first New England whaling couples to go to sea together. They sailed aboard the ship Tiger in the 1840s.
Amanda L. Goodheart, the school programs assistant at the Springfield Museums, used to think the couple was an anomaly in the whaling industry. But she learned that between 1840 and the 1920s, it is estimated that hundreds of whaling captains and their wives sailed together, initially in spite of seafaring and societal traditions and expectations
"In some cases, love was certainly the reason why these couples went to sea together," said Goodheart who, for more than six years, has been examining gender and marriage in the New England whaling industry.
"Other women went out of duty, a need to comfort and support their husband, no matter what the personal cost," said Goodheart, noting "no two couple's story is the same."
She added that in the mid-19th century, some men and women, like the Brewsters, were encouraged to choose their partners based on mutual affection, not just for economic advancement.
"This was a radical departure from ideas surrounding marriage that dominated their parents' and grandparents' generation, when marriages were considered little more than business transactions," Goodheart said. "That's why I find these couples so fascinating. They were willing to put their reputations and, in some cases, their lives on the line, to be together. If that isn't love, I don't know what is."
Goodheart, who grew up in southeastern Massachusetts, earned a master's degree in public history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2010. Currently a doctoral candidate in the university's history department, Goodheart will present a talk, "Sweethearts at Sea: Love and Marriage in the 19th-Century New England Whaling Industry," based on her dissertation, on Feb. 13 at 12:15 p.m. at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
Much of Goodheart's childhood was spent at the beach or on the ocean, but it wasn't until a college internship at Connecticut's Mystic Seaport that Goodheart became interested in the history of the whaling industry. While preparing for her work as an interpreter at Mystic, she came across the journal of Mary Brewster.
Goodheart was fascinated, and she began to research such "sister sailors" - a term coined by Mary - in greater depth.
In the mid-19th century, middle class New Englanders abided by a code of prescribed gender norms historians have dubbed the "separate spheres," Goodheart said.
"In short, a man's sphere was the masculine world of work and politics, while a woman's role was to maintain a loving, nurturing home wherein she raised her children and served as a helpmate to her husband. A woman's reputation was linked to her roles as wife and mother," she said. "It's also important to remember that the separate spheres were a prescriptive ideology - the ideal behaviors of virtuous men and women."
In reality, things were often different, for example, among the working classes, where even children labored to support the family, and also in professions, like whaling, where husbands were at sea for up to five years at time, leaving their wives to support the family on their own.
The whaling industry had stigmas against women going to sea. "It was considered bad luck to have a woman aboard ship, as some superstitious ship owners and crew alike believed the sea - a feminine entity - would become jealous, raise a storm and sink the vessel," she said.
Many of the early couples who went to sea together, in the 1840s, faced condemnation from their family, friends and community. A woman in New Bedford was disowned by her family when she went to sea with her husband; relatives erected a headstone bearing the date the ship set sail as her death date.
"But, by the 1860s, the practice of wife-carrying had become commonplace, and by the beginning of the industry's decline in the 1870s, it was almost the standard," Goodheart said.
"It was considered a privilege to bring one's wife aboard a whaling vessel, a privilege generally only awarded to the most successful and trustworthy of captains."
It some cases, captains were allowed to bring their children, but in other cases, a women would have to make the choice between staying at home with her children or going to sea with her husband.
On board, women, who might enjoy the adventure of visiting new places, also had to fill time, sometimes by writing, reading or sewing.
"Cleanliness and health were also challenges they faced, as the process of whaling is a foul, bloody, messy business that stunk up the entire ship," Goodheart said.
Such challenges were compounded, if women brought their children aboard, or if they became pregnant while at sea.
"Captains' wives often butted heads with the ship's cook and steward, as those were paid jobs held by men, even though their duties mirrored what was then considered to be 'women's work' on shore," Goodheart said.
"That being said, some of the women I study kept the ship's official logbook, cooked special occasion meals for her husband and the ship's officers, etc. But generally speaking, they were considered passengers at best."
Admission for the talk, part of the museums' a la carte series, is $4 ($2 for members of the Springfield Museums); visitors are invited to bring lunch (cookies and coffee are provided).
For more information, call (413) 263-6800, ext. 488.