women mariners take on the sea
June 7, 2006

“Shipping Out: The Story of America’s Seafaring Women” is a comprehensive, spirited look at the women of today who sail the seas for a living. Made for public television, the video documentary opens with striking images of intrepid women on tanks and tugs, climbing on board container ships, piloting through dangerous waters, and yes, even cooking up a gourmet meal in a ship’s galley.

Over the next 56 minutes, the viewer gets to know a dynamic, diverse group of women who have been drawn to the Merchant Marines, not just in the last 20 years since significant restrictions have been lifted on women’s access to these jobs, but as far back as the late 1800s, when women disguised themselves as men to be able to “ship out.”

The question of what drives these women becomes the central theme of the video. What inspires them to pursue the life of a captain on a container ship, piloting the Columbia River Bar, or restoring old tugboats off the San Francisco Bay?

As one female tug captain, Jeanne Pinto, puts it early on, “It’s really fun, pushing this huge ship around.” But another woman, Capt. Carol Curtiss tempers this with, “The truth is, this is a hard job. It’s not for every woman, it’s not for every man.”

To meet these women is to encounter the stuff that determination and dreams are made of. More than anything, we learn how much they are dedicated to the work. Whether getting scarred from a boiler-room accident, or being away from loved ones for months at a time, what unites these women is an undeniable, infectious passion. The best part of the video is when they talk about what they love about the job, such as when engineer Mary Helen Smith mentions “the sunsets, wind through the hair, being taken seriously for once.”

The documentary introduces women like Mary Frances Culnane, the first woman to graduate from King’s Point, the Merchant Marine Academy.

Since 1974, women have been allowed into the academy, but very few make it. You have to be that much better, than a man, they tell you, and the training takes years. In fact, to make it all the way to pilot, a top job in the hierarchy of maritime work, the training is rigorous. To date, only three percent of the world’s pilots are women.

On some level, the subtext of “Shipping Out” really is a direct engagement in the evolving nature and purpose of a woman’s life, particularly her choice of profession. The profiles of seafaring women fly in the face of notions of gender and social constructs. It’s as if getting off of land-based ideologies and “shipping out” to sea, these women challenge both themselves and all of society.

One story that resonates is single-mom Melissa Parker, who recently had to give up her beloved tugboat business after she had a baby. But she manages to find a real estate job that supports her love of restoring old tugboats, and is able to spend quality time with both her daughter and the boats. Captain Deborah Dempsey may not have a traditional family, in the sense of a husband and children,  but she’s proud of what she sees as an ancient family, the family that is the merchant marines, and  ultimately, the sea itself.

The absence of family and the presence of the sea is a recurrent theme. For a lot of the women interviewed, finding the right partner is difficult, not just because they are gone for so long, but because they are used to being in charge.

“You want to be in command at home, as well,” one of them remarks.

“These boats are my significant other,” Melissa laughs, almost wistfully.

“Shipping Out” is available on DVD for $24.95 plus $4.00 mailing. Make checks payable to: Waterfront Soundings Productions / 3252 Kempton Avenue / Oakland, CA 94611. An accompanying study guide, to help teachers explore subjects raised in the documentary, is available for $5.00 or can be downloaded for free at www.shippingoutvideo.com.

Independent filmmaker and activist, Amie Williams has recently finished the film “Eye of the Storm” on the 2002 ILWU longshore lockout and contract negotiations and a film for PBS about American Apparel, titled “No Sweat.”