Case W4
- Women Voyagers
Mary Ann Parker. A Voyage Round the World, in the Gorgon Man of War: Captain John Parker. London: Printed by John Nichols, 1795.
From 1791 till June 1792, Mary Parker (1765/6–1848) accompanied her husband Captain John Parker (1749?–1794) around the world on board the Gorgon, when he was sent to relieve the starving convict colony at Port Jackson, New South Wales. Soon after her husband’s death in 1794, Parker published her account of the voyage to raise money to support herself and her children; a list of subscribers appears at the beginning of her book.
As well as sections of her husband's log of the journey, and his comments on the abysmal conditions on board the convict transports, Parker gives her own account of the social life at the Gorgon’s various ports of call and observations of local customs.
Mary Ann Parker. A Voyage Round the World, in the Gorgon Man of War: Captain John Parker. London: Printed by John Nichols, 1795.
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Abby Jane Morrell. Narrative of a Voyage to the Ethiopic and South Atlantic Ocean, Chinese Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean in the Years 1829, 1830, 1831. New York: J&J Harper, 1833.
Among the earliest and most accomplished accounts of a voyage written by a woman on board was Abby Jane Morrell’s diary of a voyage between 1829 and 1831 that took her from New England to the South Pacific. Her husband Captain Benjamin Morrell was in the sealing trade but also a keen explorer.
As stated in the publisher’s advertisement, Captain Morrell’s account of the voyage was also published, but Mrs Morrell’s version is “of a more reflective character, and exhibits the impressions made upon the mind of an educated female by scenes and occurrences so different from those which it is the lot of women generally to encounter”.
Abby Jane Morrell. Narrative of a Voyage to the Ethiopic and South Atlantic Ocean, Chinese Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean in the Years 1829, 1830, 1831. New York: J&J Harper, 1833.
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