Stars to Steer By – Celebrating the 2oth Century Women who went to Sea
Author: Julia Jones, published by Adlard Coles, 2025
In Stars to Steer By, sailing writer Julia Jones tells the stories of ordinary and extraordinary women, known and unknown today, who went to sea between the late 19th century and today. From the wives of sailing ship captains (who never appeared in the Log) to women who have skippered round the world racing yachts. From First World War volunteers who formed the new Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) in 1917, to women today like Commodore Jo Adey, one of the most senior officers in the Royal Navy, and Sarah West, the first woman to command a Royal Navy warship.
Jones tells the stories of these and dozens of other women, most of whom went to sea in much smaller boats. She tells of their backgrounds and how they had to overcome extraordinary barriers. Assumptions of others about family roles and responsibilities, male prejudice, societal practices such as all-male yacht clubs, and plain old misogyny.
Stars To Steer By is miscast in this column of Lesser-Known Inspiring Reads because it’s just been published this year, and I’m sure it will become well known. As an elderly male reader, growing up in the UK in the 50s, 60s and 70s, I found the book engaging. A chapter a day after lunch got me thinking about these amazing people, both men and women, and their backstories, so often missed in books on sailing adventures.
Jones’s ear and eye for the ludicrous, the curious, the exceptional, the detail, and the personal stories make this book far more than ‘A Celebration of 20th Century Women who went to Sea’. It is that. Enlightening, entertaining, and sometimes shocking. But it’s also a celebration of, and sometimes deservedly critical of, the men they went to sea with. It reflects the times and the social mores.
How harshly should we judge past behaviours by today’s expectations? But I don’t feel Jones does this overtly; instead tells the reader how it was, leaving the reader to do the judging.
I particularly enjoyed the back stories of women I knew of, the already famous ones such as Beryl Boxer (later Smeeton), Ann Davison (Last Voyage etc) Clare Francis, Nicolette Milnes Walker and too many others to mention.
Inevitably, the women of whom there are records of going to sea tend to be those who wrote about it, were written about, or appear in the records of yacht clubs. Still, Jones has managed to go deeper, surfacing stories of women of whom there are fewer published records.
One such is ocean voyager Di Beach. Jones quotes Beach as she captures beautifully something about the sea that voyagers know, but often can’t express:
Every morning, every day, every evening, the water was different. In my catalogue of memories, I still carry a picture of certain days, particular moods of the ocean and the sky, and it does not surprise me to learn that some maritime cultures have a vocabulary to describe different aspects of the water. When you become intimate with it, you need more words.
And on adventure, ocean sailing in the 1960s, Beach puts into words something of how many adventurers of the time may have felt, indeed the thoughts of Julie and me aboard The Aegre in the early ’70s. Do voyagers still feel this today, or does modernity inevitably accompany them?
Since the 1950s, an increasing number of people have escaped from the jail of modernity. People are heading for the hills, wilderness, seeking isolated nooks and crannies. With nostalgia, they pursue the crafts of a simpler world: pottery, spinning, weaving, and horticulture. For those on the run, possessed of the necessary attributes, the oceans are the obvious places to hide. They are the last wilderness, where nobody can find you, tax you, make you wear disgusting stockings or throttle you with a tie, force you to conform, coerce you into living to work, or equate your time with money. Â
In addition to telling the stories of women who went far offshore, Jones also traces the course of women who took (or tried to take) roles in the UK yacht club world. These stories show their treatment by the yachting establishment of the time, and the occasional success of women. As in other fields, it seems they had to do far more than men to be noticed, accepted and respected. Women today active in the yacht club world have much to thank these early pioneers for.
To it all, Jones brings a perspective derived from growing up immersed in the sailing, yachting world of England. Thus her book is more than a celebration of the 2oth century women who went to sea, but a vehicle in which she shares her insight into the social history of the times. Her research is impressive, and for any collector of sailing stories, the included bibliography is awe-inspiring, a reading list for years to come.
Finally, Stars to Steer By answered a question I’ve had for 51 years. In early 1974, Julie and I anchored our little Shetland boat, The Aegre, in Bequia, WI, for a week or so to prepare for the passage across the Caribbean to Panama and out into the Pacific. As always, we met the other cruising people anchored nearby. There weren’t many in those days. One was a single-hander aboard a Nicholson 32, a most desirable vessel in our eyes.
The owner was youngish (but a bit older than us), English, friendly, outgoing, and organised. She was only the second woman we’d met sailing alone. But who was she? I’ve long had my suspicions, now confirmed by Jones, telling the back-story of Clare Francis.
Oh, and another of the stars Jones writes about in the book is Julie from The Voyage of The Aegre. Deservedly so.
Highly recommended.
Nick Grainger, author of The Voyage of The Aegre
Stars to Steer By: Celebrating the 20th Century Women who went to Sea, by Julia Jones, 2025, published by Adlard Coles, is available in hardback, Kindle and as an audiobook narrated by the author. From bookshops, Amazon etc.
Back to The Voyage of The Aegre homepage
