Mary Lacy - female sailor and shipwright
Mary Lacy (everything here is based on her self-written biography and should therefore be viewed with caution) was born on 12 January 1740. Although she came from a very poor family, she was quite educated and could even read and write. Although she had to help support her family through manual labour from an early age, she was finally sent to work as a servant in a household at the age of 12. The work there did not make her happy and so she packed her bags, disguised herself as a young man and disappeared to Chatham in 1759.
Mary Lacy, The female shipwright, 1800 (x)
There, as William Chandler, she became assistant to the Carpenter of HMS Sandwich, a newly launched ship of the line with 90 guns. From him she learned everything she needed for the carpenter's trade, even if her master was not always pleased with her. But she managed to make a name for herself among the men by winning boxing matches. However, she began to develop rheumatoid arthritis at an early age. This sent her to the sickbay for a long time. Fortunately, the Sandwich was on blockade duty off Brest, so she was able to recover in peace. Unfortunately, there are no detailed records of Mary's work on board as she skilfully omitted this from her biography. What she did recount was that a very strong storm repeatedly damaged the ship's main mast, forcing her back to the Plymouth for repairs. In November, it was the storm that held up the Sandwich until two days after Admiral Hawke caught up with and destroyed the French fleet in the Bay of Quiberon, one of the great victories of the English Navy. So Mary did not take part in the battle that ended the threat of a French invasion of England, but the war continued and the blockade of the French coast continued.
HMS Sandwich laying her mooring at sunset, by Jack Spurling, 1932 (x)
In 1760, when the Sandwich returned to Portsmouth, Mary was transferred to the hospital as she was again suffering from a severe rheumatic attack, she was under treatment but no one knew of her true sex. Somewhat to her chagrin, the Sandwich sailed without her, so she signed on with HMS Royal Sovereign, 100 guns. Like many men and women at sea, Mary suffered from scurvy. Although the Royal Sovereign was stationed in an English port, which meant that the crew would be supplied with fresh meat and vegetables, there was never enough to prevent the dreaded disease from affecting the men. The boatswain on board the Royal Sovereign. took fatherly care of Mary, and it was here that she was able to attend school on board, where she learned to "cast accompts [sic]". After a full year and nine months on board the ship, without having gone ashore once, the crew was finally paid off and discharged in December 1762. Ashore in Portsmouth, Mary soon decided to begin an apprenticeship with a ship's carpenter. But after the signing of the peace treaty with Paris on 10 February 1763, many men had returned home and were looking for work. Nevertheless, Mary persisted.
The flagship Royal Sovereign saluting at the Nore, by L. de Man (fl. c. 1725) (x)
Normally, a shipwright's apprenticeship was passed down from father to son. But in the spring of 1763, still pretending to be a man, Mary Lacy managed to learn a new trade. As an apprentice, she worked alternately in the dockyard or on a ship and thus learned the trade. Eight years after Mary Lacy left home, she received permission to visit her parents. She was now twenty-seven. She found her family very well off and did not mention in her writing what her family thought of her living as a man. Only her family and a few close family friends knew the true identity of the visiting sailor. One of these family friends, a Mrs Low, later moved to Portsmouth, and although she had promised Mary never to reveal her secret, the woman began to tell anyone who would listen that William Chandler was a woman. For several more years Mary managed to dispel the rumours about her gender, even going so far as to flirt with women and find herself a girlfriend to spend several months with without revealing her sex.
Mary Lacy (detail) (x)
Finally, in the spring of 1770, after seven years of working towards it, Mary Lacy received her certificate and was officially declared a ship's carpenter. For the first time, she received a living wage, even if the money was paid slowly. However, Mary's rheumatism kept flaring up, and finally, towards the end of 1771, with the help of a family lawyer friend, she applied for and received an invalid pension from the Navy as a woman. Mary Lacy, commonly referred to as Mrs Chandler according to the Navy Department, received twenty pounds a year. She published her memoirs The Female Shipwright in 1773 which brought her some money. But a year earlier she married the shipwright Josias Slade with whom she had 6 children by 1784, of whom only her first-born daughter and her last-born son reached adulthood. Both of them tried to get higher positions as servants in the dockyard, but their efforts were ignored. Mary finally died in 1801 and was buried at St Paul's, Deptford, Kent on 3 May 1801. Her husband, died in 1814 and was buried in St Paul's, Deptford, Kent, on 13 February 1814.
