Provides an in-depth study of the women who lived and worked on British warships of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The author investigates the custom of allowing prostitutes to live with the crews of warships in port and why the Royal Navy unofficially condoned the practice. She offers accounts of the wives of warrant officers and seaman who spent years at sea living - and fighting - beside their men without pay or even food rations and of the women in disguise who actually served as seaman or marines.