jasonandrew | (no subject)

(no subject)

My google-fu is weak. I'm looking for ways a girl would have crossdressed to appear to be a boy while on a sailing ship back in the 1600-1700s. Basically, a girl is going to be pretending to be a Yeoman.

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Isn't that a well worn character type?

Bind your breasts with a stout silk sash. You'll sweat and feel uncomfortable. Cut your hair, chop it off with a knife or a set of shears. Stuff your codpiece with a Turk's Knot. (Google Turk's Knot - it's an old sailor's knot that her uncle the sailor would have certainly taught her).

Her hands will need to be rough. Is she a washer maid? How hard has she been working? She'll need to pull her weight. A sailor's life back then was particularly hard.

She should learn to blow here nose with her knuckles, or rub them on her collar. Certain ranked sailors were called "Snotties", those who stood watch on the cold Atlantic nights and wiped their nose on their pea coat's collar.

That's all I can think of, off the cuff.

Problem arises because there is very little privacy on any ship of that period. They were terribly small and terribly overcrowded. So she's have the worst time faking it for more than a few hours. A day or two would be the utmost, before she's need to lean over the side to piss or shit, which is what was done, and she lacks the equipment. Plus, unless she's a terribly ugly girl, she's probably be the best looking "boy" on the ship, and that's a whole nother way to get found out. And quick.

Modern times, possible, yes. Three centuries ago, not really happening. There's too little space and too much time, even for "short" voyages. Crossing the English Channel could take as much as a month of sailing out daily, and not making it across, or struggling against the wind for hours, or being blown horribly off course, and that was only a dozen miles or so. Any real voyage...well, it's not going to work. You'd need a very short trip blessed with good weather for her to get across unnoticed.

The only real option is for the crew to know, but not really care. That is, either someone on the crew is fully aware, and the rest of them are willing to ignore it because of fear of the protector or a suspected or real relationship; or else everyone knows and they don't say because of some other reason, up to you what that might be.

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