Mary Perkins, sailor, 1840
Mary Perkins’ story is one of the more unusual stories about “female sailors” in 19th-century American newspapers. There is the humorous judicial vignette recorded by the reporter for the Boston Post, who apparently was entertained by Perkins’ courtroom appearance. And Perkins provided a number of surprises. To the police court, there was the surprise that the “handsome young sailor” was born female. To the reporter for the Post, there was the surprise that Perkins didn’t adhere to the usual stereotype of the lovelorn young woman disguising herself to accompany a lover or to search for the man who deserted her.
In fact, the reporter seems to have been nonplussed by the situation. He does include the traditional physical description of the female-bodied sailor. But Perkins didn’t play the usual role, neither swooning over the rough talk of fellow sailors nor participating in it. Perkins revealed many details of childhood and young adulthood, but managed to keep large sections secret. And there was that refusal to pretend to be pursuing a betraying lover. To the reporter, the whole thing seems to have been a puzzle; so he takes refuge in mentioning that Perkins must be either “abandoned” or “touched with a spice of insanity” or both, before slinging around some entertaining phrenological jargon as an amusing semi-explanation.
[A couple notes: Perkins stole from Elizabeth Wharf, possibly the Betsey Wharff listed on the 1840 United States census; living in Ward 3 in the City of Boston, the Wharff household consisted of one white female age 40 to 49 and one white female age 80-89. (See 1840 United States census; M704 roll #198; p. 376. online database: Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.) Elizabeth may have been related to Eliphalet Wharff, who died on 25 January 1840 at the age of 44, of smallpox. (See Deaths and Interments in Boston. Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute [Jay and Delene Holbrook]. online database: Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.) Pantalettes were light cotton or linen underwear—at least knee-length—with decorative frill at the bottom of the legs. Pantaloon pockets must have been pretty large.]
“Police Court: Jacket and Trowsers On the Wrong Customer.” Boston Post [Boston, Massachusetts] 13 November 1840; p. 2.
There was a curious exhibition in court yesterday. The clerk called for Mary Perkins, and forthwith a very handsome young sailor mounted the prisoners’ stand. The clerk cast an impatient look at the officer, and again inquired—”Where is Mary Perkins, sir?”
Vialle—There she is.
Clerk—Where?
Vialle—Why there she is [pointing to the sailor].
Clerk—I can’t see her.
Vialle—Why, sir, it is that woman there, dressed up in sailor clothes, standing before you.
Clerk—What is the meaning of her being dressed in that way?
Vialle—She has been a sailor, and that is the only clothes she has.
After this explanation, the clerk proceeded to read a complaint against Miss Perkins for stealing a neck handkerchief, pair of pantalettes, and a cape, from Mrs Elizabeth Wharf. The stolen articles were found in her pantaloons pocket, by the officer who arrested her—Mr Merrifield. She said she knew not how the articles came into her possession, but admitted that she was intoxicated, in consequence of having drank some gin. She had not a cent of money about her. A sentence to the house of correction for two months, was therefore a clear act of charity towards her.
After her sentence was passed, an individual distinguished for his humanity, as far as talking goes, had some conversation with her, but could not obtain a very intelligent account of her past history, or the cause of her unsexing herself and taking to the dangerous and laborious life of a sailor. She says she is twenty years of age—was born at Golden Grove, 13 miles from St. John, N. S.; that her father and mother will live there, with a family of seven sons and two daughters, and that she has a married sister residing at Windham, N. H., to which place she is desirous of going. Her father, who is a farmer, she says has acted harshly toward her, but her “mother has always been middling kind to her—as kind as a mother with so many children, could be expected to be.” When, how, where or why, she doffed her feminine attire, she did not seem disposed to disclose; but she spoke somewhat ambiguously of having been at Albany, but for what purpose she would not state.
For six months, she has acted as steward on board of the brig Hannah and Abigail, on regular trips from Lubec to New York. When asked if she had not been often shocked by the grossness of those with whom she was often obliged to associate, she replied, that when they began to speak of things which she did not wish to listen to, she could easily move out of hearing. And, in reply to another question, she said it was very easy to preserve her incognita on board of ship. When asked if she had given her true name, she said that she had; and when told that she ought not to have done so, on account of its injuring her future character, besides wounding the feelings of her relations, she said—“There is no use in lying about my name. The fact is, I have already told lies enough about myself—to sink a hundred souls!”
She is rather above the middle size for a woman—with an interesting, regular countenance, and dark, lustrous, yet languishing eyes—such as poets, and such like cattle, grind out rhymes about. Her hair is trimmed about semi-soap-lock, and her hands, blistered and tar-begrimmed [sic], have every appearance of having been employed in pulling and hauling on ship-board.
She denies most emphatically that deceitful man has been the cause of her erratic career. She neither went with a true lover, nor in pursuit of a false one. She may be a most abandoned creature; or she may be touched with a spice of insanity—arising, phrenologically speaking, from a disproportionate developement [sic] of the animal propensities over the intellectual faculties of her brain, as indicated by the exterior of her head. Perhaps she is a little of both; and no doubt much may be said on both sides.
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