ABSTRACT
Women contributed significantly to the public image of the Navy although only a limited number actually went to sea. Women did go to sea with the fleet and so featured in representations of the Navy. It has been argued that in the eighteenth century men and women increasingly came to inhabit separate spheres. The separate spheres model posited that, due to increasing prosperity, and the growth of a restrictive concept of femininity, middle- and upper-class women were steadily enclosed within the private, domestic sphere and enjoyed little or no part in the masculine, public sphere. Women needed to exercise caution when embarking on any social intercourse designed to improve seamen. Alexander warned of the dangers presented by men newly released on shore: Man, secluded from the company of women, is not only a rough and uncultivated, but a dangerous, animal to society. Women rarely refer to domestic arrangements when they mention the Navy in their published works.
