My Year Before the Mast

Fiona Hart is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and women’s studies at
the University of Toronto.

In 1933, 23-year-old Annette “Jacky” Brock overcame the constraints
of both her gender and her class position to fulfil her dreams of
becoming a crewmember aboard a Finnish sailing vessel, the L’Avenir.
Annette’s struggles against sexism are understated as she describes
her determined adventures with pluck and matter-of-factness. However,
one can easily read between the lines to imagine the courage it must
have taken for a young woman of her time to take up such an unusual
pursuit.

This biography is quite remarkable, both for the year it recounts and
its vivid descriptions of sea and sailing. The author has a good eye for
detail, and many interesting characters come to life in her descriptions
of her sailing mates. At first, the reading is slow as the book is
extremely detailed and technical (thankfully, a glossary is provided).
However, it becomes increasingly fascinating to read, as we are drawn
into an unfamiliar world of riggings, chart houses, and lanyards. The
book does not chronicle Jacky’s inner life so much as it describes a
life on the sea. As such, it is action-packed and exciting reading, full
of the challenges of weather, the charting of gendered and national
boundaries with her fellow seafarers, and the unforgiving sea.

In the end, custom and family pressure force Jacky into a grounded
life. It is difficult not to ache with her for what “might have
been,” as she describes it. And one is left deeply curious to know
what the young Jacky did with the rest of her life on dry land.
Ultimately, one feels grateful for her “year before the mast” as it
opened the way for many women to follow, both in a pragmatic sense and
in the opening of the imagination to the possibilities of a woman’s
life.