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I am an academic in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London, and am writing a book about women who accompanied their husbands or fathers to sea in the C19th. My particular focus is on those women who learned navigation while at sea, so I am searching archives for evidence of this study. In the USA I have found good evidence of women (usually captains' wives) learning navigation and in some cases, being called upon to navigate the ship. I would like to extend this research to Britain, and am asking for help to locate diaries, letters, newspaper articles etc. relating to women who went to sea in the C19th. Obviously, I may have to search through this material for any evidence that these women studied navigation, but the materials relating to women at sea, as passengers, captains' wives, stewardesses, etc., would be extremely useful for the context of my book as well. Upon their return from sea, some women opened a school to teach navigation to young men who were rising through the maritime profession. I have heard that this was the case for a woman in Llangranog, Wales, in the C19th, and I should very much like to try to learn more about her, for example. I was told of another such case in Greenwich, but have been unable to discover anything more about that. The book is underway, but mostly focusses on American women in the C19th. I feel that this is a real imbalance, as I know, anecdotally from American women's diaries and letters that their British counterparts also were going to sea with their husbands, and that some too did study navigation. This is a lost history that I am very keen to uncover, and am asking for help to locate any diaries, letters, newspaper or journal articles, accounts, etc that may lead to a further knowledge of women who went to sea in the C19th (esp. as wives or daughters of the captain). If any of these materials are in Welsh, I do have some Welsh, but also have good access to translators. Many thanks for any help you can offer with this project. I look forward to hearing from you, and am happy to travel to your archives. Best wishes, Sophie Gilmartin Dr Sophie Gilmartin Reader in C19th Literature Royal Holloway University of London Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra