Seafaring Women Aboard and Ashore Network
Women are pillars of the maritime world. As seafarers, as care workers, and as part of the shore crew, women have helped to build maritime industry around the world.
Join us 29 April to 1 May, 2026 in the beautiful port city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador for The Women and the Sea Workshop.
Men, women and children on the wharf with the Ethie docked, Britainnia, Trinity Bay, PF-055.2-R05, Capt. Harry Stone Collection, Part 2, Maritime History Archive, MUN, St. John’s, NL.
We have always been here.
Women went to sea.
Women were skippers of the shore crew.
Women belong at sea.
We have always been here. Women went to sea. Women were skippers of the shore crew. Women belong at sea.
Women packing fish at [John Penny & Sons Ltd.] plant at Ramea, Newfoundland, 194-. PF-045.009, Victor G. Kendal Collection, Maritime History Archive, MUN. St. John’s, NL.
Our Story
Seafaring Women Ashore and Abroad Network is not just about looking forward, but also about challenging our collective memory of women’s role at sea to build our future in maritime industry in collaboration with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Maritime History Archive, and the Marine Institute. Our home base of Newfoundland is important as women have long been recognized as the skippers of the shore crew.
SWAAN’s planning committee is led by Dr. Julia Stryker, adjunct of History at Memorial University and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Saskatchewan.
This project is a collaboration with archivists, researchers and administrators at Memorial University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Marine Institute and is funded by a generous Lloyds Register Foundation Small Grant.