Jo Stanley

Consultant in maritime history and creative lifestory

Black and Minority Ethnic seafarers

The richness and complexity of maritime history can be best understood if studies take into account what are now called 'protected characteristics' : race, caste, religion or belief, age, disability, height, physical appearance, gender reassignment, pregnancy, marriage and civil partnership. ethnic minorities people in maritime can experience multiple intersecting disadvantages. And racism must be talked about when we talk about race, because of the way systems marginalise stigmatised workers.

Until recently ethnic minorities women were doubly excluded (or more) from working at sea. This is a good starting place if you want to learn more: 10 FAQs. Black women in maritime history.

Their place in the maritime world can be understood if we also look at port workers and passengers.

I'm particularly interested in the following sorts of ethnic minorities women in maritime. So I can give talks on:

Ayah at children's party on ship. Painting by Godefroy Durand, 1889

Women on the Empire Windrush, 1947: Caribbean seamstresses and white lady writers too.(see 'Women of Windrush: Britain's adventurous arrivals that history forgot,' New Statesman, 22 June 2018.
The few 18C ethnic minorities women who cross-dressed on sailing ships as cabin boys, including 'William Brown' from Grenada
Ayahs as ethnic minorities women travellers, 1850-1930.
20C sex workers in ports. They serviced visiting seamen and in doing so gave men entrée into the hidden local culture beyond tourism
Gash Jennies in 20C Hong Kong. See 'A warm stroke from shore to ship: naval homages to Hong Kong's female side-parties', Port Towns and Urban Cultures, 14 April 2020. porttowns.port.ac.uk › hong-kongs-female-side-parties

You can get my 11-page bibliography of ethnic minorities seafarers by emailing me: .

My recent talks, which you can see online.

AYAHS. The Lascar's posh aunties: Indian ayahs working as passengers of the Raj: 1800-1939. Black History Month talk, in Maritime UK's Ethnicity in Maritime Network, October 2021. Now available as streamed PowerPoint talk at bit.ly/AyahsMUK

AYAHS AND LASCARS. Anything like Lascars? Race, gender and Ayahs (Asian nannies) as working passengers, 1850-1950,'Blaydes Maritime History Seminar, Hull. November 2021 and now available as PowerPoint at www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxBcDJx73z0

Read This

Articles

Stanley J. 2020. The voyage of the Empire Windrush - A different perspective, Historycalroots, 25. July 2020
Stanley, J. 2019. Veterans victimized (The 1919 race riots in ports), Nautilus Telegraph, March, pp44-45, .
Stanley J. 2019: Review: 'Ruhleben 1914-1918: African diaspora and Arab civilians interned in Germany,' International Journal of Maritime History, Vol 31, no 2, pp 414-422.
Stanley J. 2018. 'Homeward Bound', in Marine Quarterly, Autumn, pp86-90.
Stanley J. 2018. Review. 'Black Salt' exhibition, Merseyside Maritime Museum, International Journal of Maritime History, Autumn, Vol 30, issue 4, pp747-759.

Black Salt exhibition, Merseyside Maritime Museum

Stanley J. 2018. 'Homeward Bound', in Marine Quarterly, Autumn, pp86-90.
Stanley J. 2018. 'Questing for Cuba Cornwallis' (Nelson's Jamaican nurse0, in Trafalgar Chronicle, Autumn.
Stanley J. 2013. 'Searching for Histories of Black Women's Service across the Seas in the Second World War', History Workshop Online, January 14.
Stanley J. 2012. 'Ayahs Who Travelled: Indian nannies voyaging to Britain in the nineteenth century', Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter, January, pp5-8.
Stanley J. 2000. 'Black women on British ships', Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter, no. 28, Sept, pp10-13.
Stanley, J. 2022. “Invisible Hands: ayahs' voyages,” History Today, January, 72 (10) www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/invisible-hands

Items in my blog on the gendered seas

Stanley J. 2019. Black seafarers in WW1. Event 24 Jan 2019. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2018/11/black-seafarers-in-ww1-event-24-jan-2019.html
Stanley J. 2019.The black cook, the cross-dressed wife, and the ship's hot kitchen 1852. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-black-cook-cross-dressed-wife-and.html
Stanley J. 2019. 10 FAQs. Black women in maritime history. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2019/10/10-faqs-black-women-in-maritime-history.html
Stanley J. 2018. Ed. Guest blog by John D Ellis. When "Jack Tar" met "Tommy Atkins": Black Men Serving as Both Sailors and Soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2018/07/when-jack-tar-met-tommy-atkins-black.html
Stanley J. 2018. Adultery, miscegenation and lies in a naval family: black sailor John Webb, 1785. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2018/12/adultery-miscegenation-and-lies-in.html
Stanley J. 2018. Black seafarers in WW1. Event 24 Jan 2019. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2018/11/black-seafarers-in-ww1-event-24-jan-2019.html
Stanley J. 2017. Black seafarers celebrated in Black History Month, Merseyside Maritime Museum. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2017/09/black-seafarers-celebrated-in-black.html
Stanley J. 2017. Jamaican woman behind the Navy List. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2019/11/jamaican-woman-behind-navy-list.html
Stanley J. 2016. Nominations for top Black and Minority Ethnic women seafarers https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2016/10/nominations-for-top-black-and-minority.html
Stanley J. 2010. Women on sailing ships 1650-1850 / Black sailors. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2010/07/women-on-sailing-ships-1650-1850-black.html
Stanley J. 2017. Race and the Sea conference, Liverpool Sept 2017. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2017/06/race-and-sea-conference-liverpool-sept.html

Belinda Bennett, Cruise ship captain

Stanley J. 2016. Belinda Bennett, first black woman cruisehip captain https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2016/03/belinda-barrett-first-black-woman.html
Stanley J. 2013. Sex, race, drugs - and some liberation - in Limehouse's 1920s sailortown. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2013/12/sex-race-drugs-and-some-liberation-in.html
Stanley J. 2013. Black servicewomen sailing to UK in wartime. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2013/01/black-servicewomen-sailing-to-uk-in.html
Stanley J. 2012. Black woman becomes deputy head of US Navy. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2012/08/black-woman-becomes-deputy-head-of-us.html
Stanley J. 2009. Asian seamen. https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2009/08/asian-seamen.html