Trailblazing Women of the Ocean

I’ve just returned from a fantastic trip to Florida for some world class scuba diving followed by a women’s leadership conference. While the two events were unrelated, having them back-to-back got me thinking about the debt we owe to the trailblazing women of the ocean whose daring pursuits and pioneering research have defied convention in male-dominated maritime fields to blaze a path for women everywhere to enjoy our oceans.

So, here are ten amazing women you should know and celebrate:

JEANNE BARET was the very first woman to circumnavigate the globe…and she did it disguised as a man! Jeanne was an expert botanist and assistant to Philibert Commercon, but women were banned from naval ships so she enlisted as his valet ‘Jean’ Baret and off they went in 1766 on the very first French ship to sail around the world. She was found out at some point and both Jeanne and her boss agreed to leave the ship in Mauritius, where they stayed for a few years and Jeanne became a successful business women. She married a French sailor and finally completed her round-the-world trip, arriving back on French soil 8 years after she left. She had collected over 6000 plant specimens and identified several new species, and her business ventures had amassed a small fortune as well. Not too bad for a self-educated peasant girl!

KRYSTYNA CHOJNOWSKA-LISKIEWICZ started sailing as a child in Poland, studied shipbuilding at university and had her captain’s licence by the time she was 30. A decade later in March 1976 she set out alone from the Canary Islands in a 32-foot yacht custom designed by her husband to sail the seven seas as the first solo female. Along the way she faced treacherous seas, equipment failures, illness, and loneliness – but she persevered. After two years, in March 1978, Krystyna returned to the Canaries having circumnavigated the globe via the Panama Canal. Sadly her accomplishment went widely unrecognised because the World Sailing Council decreed that only a circumnavigation via Cape Horn counted, and they bestowed the title of ‘first female’ to British sailor Naomi James who completed that route two months later. Today you can find them both in the Guinness Book of World Records!

SIMONE COUSTEAU was Jacques Cousteau’s wife and business partner, and what a partnership it was: While Jacques was in front of the camera, Simone was behind the scenes making it all happen, literally! As the world’s first underwater videographer, it’s the footage captured by Simone and her crew in ‘The Silent World’ that became the first documentary to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and brought the magic of Jacques Cousteau and scuba diving to the world. But Simone was so much more than that! She connected Jacques to the engineer and financing for his groundbreaking diving inventions; she sold her family heirlooms to finance the Cousteau’s famous ship Calypso; and she was onboard for 40 years to make sure each exploration achieved its objective. According to her son, ‘She was the real captain and spent more time on Calypso than my father, brother and myself combined.’

DOTTIE FRAZIER is a true diving icon. She grew up on the sea, learned to swim by age 3 and was a prize-winning skin diver as a teenager. She began teaching skin diving and soon qualified as the first female scuba instructor in the US (despite the objections of many in the industry). Her very first class was with 5 male doctors who initially rejected being taught by a woman, so she offered to refund their money if they weren’t satisfied after the first day. They went on to complete their training with her, and Dottie went on to build a strong reputation as an instructor. But she didn’t stop there! Dottie trained as a hard-hat diver and worked as one of the first female commercial divers. Finding that too restrictive, she returned to scuba instruction and bought her local dive shop, becoming the USA’s first female dive-shop owner. She designed one of the first ranges of women’s wetsuits, and continued to take on new adventures well into her 90’s!

EUGENIE CLARK spent much of her childhood at the New York Aquarium while her mother worked at a nearby newsstand. It was there that Eugenie fell in love with the ocean and dreamed of swimming with the sharks in the tanks. As an adult, she did just that! She even became known as the Shark Lady! She obtained a PhD in Zoology with a focus on marine biology, and became a trailblazer in using scuba diving for research with new and sometimes dangerous techniques to get close to sharks. She faced discrimination both as a Japanese-American and as a woman, but the quality of her work prevailed and gained recognition. Eugenie led hundreds of dives and research expeditions around the world, and her pioneering research on sharks helped change attitudes and dispel myths created by the movie ‘Jaws’. And here’s a fun fact: she completed her last dive at 92 years old!

GERTRUDE EDERLE set her first world record in swimming when she was just 12 years old, making her the youngest world record holder in the sport. She went on to claim 8 more world record titles and an Olympic gold medal. But Gertrude’s on my list today because she was named the ‘Queen of the Waves’ as the first female to swim the English Channel. In her first attempt, after months of preparation, Trudy’s trainer ordered one of the team to recover her from the water, an act she bitterly disagreed with, and it’s suspected that her trainer (who had tried himself to cross the channel 22 times without success) sabotaged her attempt. A year later in 1926 she returned with a new trainer and completed the swim in 14 hours and 34 minutes, becoming the first female ever to do so. Prior to Gertrude’s crossing only 5 men had completed it – all of them with slower times.

RACHEL CARSON is the woman you can thank for the US environmental protection movement. She was a one of the first female marine biologists and an author whose ‘Sea Trilogy’ books became award-winning best-sellers and caught the attention of the worldwide public. Her second book in the trilogy, ‘The Sea Around Us’ became a documentary which won the Academy Award in 1952. She then turned her attention to conservation and the harmful effects of certain pesticides. She wasn’t the first to raise concerns, but her ability to combine grounded research with poetic writing meant that her book ‘Silent Spring’ reached a huge audience despite strong opposition from the chemical industry. She held strong against the threats, campaigning for change all the way to the White House, which led to the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, and sparked a global environmental movement.

SYLVIA EARLE was inspired by Rachel Carson’s writings. She earned her PhD in botany and took to the seas, leading pioneering scientific expeditions around the world. She holds the record for the deepest walk on the sea floor (at 381 metres/1250 feet!), and she founded a company to design underwater vehicles to aid deep sea research. In 1990, Earle was appointed the Chief Scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the first woman to hold this prestigious position. She went on to publish ‘Sea Change’, a call to action to preserve our oceans, and was named Time magazine’s very first Hero for the Planet. She’s been a tireless advocate for the ocean and as National Geographic Explorer At Large has brought the beauty of the seas to countless many.

FAZILETTE KHAN’s father was in the British Navy and inspired her own seafaring career. She worked as a radio officer and engineer in the Merchant Navy when very few women did, and then became an Environmental Officer for cruise liners. It was there that she was inspired to take on even more. After seeing first hand the huge amount of plastic waste that ends up in coastal areas she decided to take action. In 2003 she founded GreenSeas Trust to help stop deadly plastics entering our seas. Her charity works with local schools and communities to raise awareness about the effect of plastic pollution and create the next generation of eco warriors. They have also installed eye-catching recycling bins on UK beaches which collect over 700kg of plastics every month! She’s now expanding her work to help the shipping industry tackle marine plastics, and recently received the Points of Light Award from the Prime Minister.

CATHRYN SPAIN is breaking barriers today as the first female Senior Harbour Master at the Port of London, responsible for navigational safety on 95 miles of the Thames. (Speaking of breaking barriers, that includes navigating the Thames Barrier and all of the iconic bridges in Central London, not to mention the big commercial docks). She had originally wanted to join the military but when she learned that most women end up in admin roles, she took a more active path instead and signed on at sixteen as a cadet with P&O Containers. Cathryn worked her way up the ranks in the Merchant Navy serving on container ships (where she was often the only female on board), then cruise ships, and then driving a super fast hovercraft ferry across the English Channel, a role that prepared her well for becoming a Harbour Master. Today she’s not only focused on ensuring the safety of the London waterways, but also ensuring opportunities for maritime women.

Here’s to these amazing women and many more making a difference in – and for – our shared oceans!

‘She believed she could, so she did’ ❤️