Love for seafaring conquers all

A career at sea can offer excitement, variety, intellectual stimulation and a feeling of camaraderie unique to the maritime community.

Of course, there are downsides too, and for female seafarers, that can mean navigating a traditional macho culture in a workplace where only 2% of crew members worldwide are women. It’s an acknowledged challenge, and good employers have done a great deal of work in recent decades to make sure they don’t lose out on recruiting women who would be an asset to their crews.

Maritime authorities, training providers and trade unions have also helped to introduce measures such as diversity and inclusion training for seafarers, and making sure a female cadet is not the sole woman onboard a vessel.

It’s great to be able to say that times have changed, and these improvements owe a lot to the female pioneers who were so determined to have a career at sea that they overcame challenges and fought for equality.

One of these pioneers was Andrea Barker (a pseudonym), whose memoir of her 1990s Merchant Navy cadetship tells of her eagerness and determination to follow the career pursued by generations of her family.

Going away to maritime college at 16 was also a way of escaping her unhappy home life, but unfortunately there were choppy waters ahead.

In the aptly-named No Quitting, Barker stresses that she did love the work and met many decent people, yet much of her cadetship was blighted by hostility and sexual harassment from male colleagues.

Her very frank memoir can therefore be a difficult read at times, but it’s important to hear her story so that we can make sure that the problems of 30 years ago don’t happen again today.

Having now risen through the ranks to become a shipmaster, Barker is still devoted to her career, and now works to support female colleagues and recruit more young women into the profession. As she says, all she ever wanted was to be treated like anyone else, and we can all play our part in making sure everyone gets a fair shot.

• Nautilus members experiencing bullying or harassment at work can access support from their industrial organiser. If you are a female member wishing to speak to our designated women’s lead, please contact the switchboard and ask for Rachel Lynch or email women@nautilusint.org. Remember that sexual assault is a crime both at sea and ashore, and if you need to make a report, the charity Safer Waves can help – see www.saferwaves.org

No Quitting: A Cadetship at Sea in the Merchant Navy
By Andrea Barker
Self-published, £12.99 (available in the Nautilus Bookshop)
ISBN 978 19191 75706