Current Partners

Lloyd’s Register is a global professional services company specialising in engineering and technology for the maritime industry. We are the world’s first marine classification society, created more than 260 years ago to improve the safety of ships.

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Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity with a unique structure and an important mission: engineering a safer world.

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The International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for measures to improve the safety and security of international shipping and to prevent pollution from ships.

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International Chamber of Shipping is the global trade association for shipowners and operators, representing the world’s national shipowner associations and over 80 % of the world merchant fleet.

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WISTA is an international networking organization whose mission is to attract and support women, at the management level, in the maritime, trading and logistics sectors.

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The Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA International) is a global organisation connecting female executives and decision-makers around the world. WISTA International serves as a connector for its network of more than 3,800 female professionals from all sectors of the maritime industry. Find out more.

The collective voice for the UK's maritime industries. We champion and work to enable a thriving maritime sector. Find out more.

Associated British Ports, the UK’s leading and best-connected ports group and we are Keeping Britain Trading. A network of 21 ports handles around one quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade, and over £150 billion of UK trade annually. Find out more. 

Lloyd's List is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734.

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Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP) is one of Scandinavia’s largest port operators, and a full-service port in the Oresund region. We receive a vast variety of goods and have an infrastructure customised for all types of vessels. Find out more

Preston Turnbull is a London based law firm with over 100 years of collective experience in our core sectors of shipping, international trade, marine insurance, yacht/ship building and commercial litigation/ADR.

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The Nautical Institute is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with consultative status at the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Our aim is to promote professionalism, best practice and safety throughout the maritime industry and to represent the interests of our members.

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Nautilus International is a trade union and professional organisation serving, supporting and protecting the interests of more than 20,000 maritime professionals in the UK, Netherlands and Switzerland.

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Professional development for those above and below the waterline. IMarEST is the international professional body and learned society for all marine professionals. Find out more.

The Seafarers Hospital Society is a maritime charity dedicated to meeting the health, welfare and advice needs of seafarers of any nationality based in the United Kingdom. Find out more.

The Seafarers’ Charity vision is to create ‘a world where seafarers and their families are valued and free of need and disadvantage’. Find out more. 

The international non-governmental organisation (NGO) working to develop and improve maritime search and rescue (SAR) capacity worldwide.

The IMRF brings together the world's maritime SAR organisations and has both voluntary and governmental organisations as members. As well as capacity building, the IMRF also has an advocacy role, providing an international voice for its members.

It is the only maritime SAR NGO with consultative status at the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO).

International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) (international-maritime-rescue.org)

RNLI crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,900 lives since 1824 but we’re more than a rescue service. We influence, supervise and educate people too. Our Community Safety teams explain the risks and share safety knowledge with anyone going out to sea or to the coast. And our international teams work with like-minded organisations to help tackle drowning in communities at risk all around the world. Find out more

The University, as a global centre of excellence recognized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations General Assembly, plays a significant role in maritime and ocean education, research, capacity-building and economic development while promoting the roles of women in the maritime and ocean sectors. Find out more. 

Warsash Maritime School is the only maritime training centre of its kind in the world. We offer over 150 accredited deck, engineering, interior, maritime and offshore safety training courses, approved by the MCA, MNTB, OPITO, SIGTTO, SQA, and other awarding bodies. Find out more.

The Marine and Maritime Institute Institute capitalises on Hull’s unique combination of physical location, maritime history and marine resource. Find out more.

 The museum has one of the oldest and largest museum harbours of the Netherlands, where you can visit historical vessels and cranes and experience how the world's leading port of Rotterdam began. Find out more.

Royal Museums Greenwich comprises the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark, National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House. We are also home to The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre and the Caird Library and Archive. Together we’re dedicated to enriching people’s understanding of the sea, the exploration of space, and Britain's role in world history.

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Aberdeen Maritime Museum tells the story of the city’s long and often dramatic relationship with the sea, from the earliest days of trading, fishing and  shipbuilding, to the discovery of North Sea oil and gas, and Aberdeen’s place today as a leader in global energy transition. Find out more

England’s coastal and marine heritage tells a story of our nation’s history of commerce, conflict and leisure. It contributes strongly to our identity and quality of life today. Our ports and a host of colourful seaside resorts remain vital for our economy, well-being and enjoyment.

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The Maritime Archaeology Trust was established to study and manage the underwater cultural heritage and disseminate the results. The organisation was set up over thirty years ago to develop a strategic approach to the sustainable management of the maritime archaeological resource in the UK and internationally. Find out more.

The BCMH was established as the British branch of the International Commission for Maritime History (ICMH), which was founded in 1965 as a constituent of the International Congress of Historical Sciences, a body affiliated to UNESCO. BCMH is a charitable trust. Its Trustees are drawn from UK museums, universities and other maritime-related organisations. Several of its members are involved in the Rewriting women into maritime project.

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National Museums Liverpool started way back in 1851 when the 13^th Earl of Derby donated his enormous natural history collection to the town of Liverpool. Now it has one of the largest collections of museums and galleries in the UK. Find out more.

South West Maritime History Society was founded in 1984 by a number of enthusiastic maritime historians. Its aims are to encourage interest in all aspects of our maritime heritage and to promote research in these fields, leading where possible to the publication of the result of such studies.

Sailors Jess Clay and Hannah Hurford chat about traditional sailing - from diving into the history and stories of the vessels themselves, to exploring themes which are a part of the industry today.

The Off Watch Podcast, has partnered with She_Sees to collaborate on interviewing current women in the maritime sector. The podcast explores all things traditional sailing and the wider positive and negative attributes that comes with working in the maritime sector. Tune in to the first episode on Rewriting Women! An introduction to the project features in Episode 3: Blood Sweat & Tears (starts 48 minutes in). 

Off Watch Podcast

Creative historian and writer of the three main UK books on women seafarers' history, plus numerous articles and blogs on the subject. Jo's website www.jostanley.biz is a go-to place for people trying to get into women's maritime history. She describes herself as "an enabler, a fast route to obscured knowledge". She focuses on the gendered seas, women and LGBT+IQ+ seafarers and can offer to a wide range of audiences.

Her books on women include: Women at Sea, 1750-today: From Cabin ‘Boys’ to Captains, History Press (Stroud, 2016), Risk! Women on the Wartime Seas, Yale University Press (2013), At Sea at Last! Women, Wrens, and the Royal Navy, 1917-2017 (I.B. Tauris, 2017).

Other selected links:

Gender and the Sea blog

Readling list of Books on Women Seafarers

Blogs for the Women's History Network

Amazon Author's page

Rainbow Seas Swelling

Specialises in maritime business history, particularly in the nineteenth century. Helen has published extensively and among her books are Jane Slade of Polruan (Truran Books, 2002), Enterprising Women in Shipping (Boydell Press, 2009), SS Great Britain: Brunel’s Ship, her Voyages, Passengers and Crew (Amberley Publishing, 2017). She co-edited and contributed to the award winning The Maritime History of Cornwall (University of Exeter Press, 2014).

Helen gained her PhD at the University of Exeter where she is a Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies. She is a member of the UK Government’s Council of Experts on National Historic Ships (these include HMS Victory, the Mary Rose, Cutty Sark and Warrior). Other appointments include Vice Chair of the British Commission for Maritime History, Trustee of the SS Great Britain and Chairman of the Acquisitions Committee for the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Helen notes that “women have always played an important part in the maritime sphere… but finding them is the hard part”.

Visit Helen's website to find out more

Articles for the RWM project Mrs Mary Ross of Rochester and Mrs Frances Barnard (1749-1825), Naval Shipbuilder

An independent engineering historian specialising in the history of women in engineering, construction history and aviation. Nina has had a varied career and on leaving school, she became a merchant navy deck officer, before taking an engineering design degree in her 30s, from the University of Warwick. She then gained a PhD in concrete durability from the University of Liverpool.

She has lived with her family in Glasgow since 1989, working in a variety of roles – a materials lecturer in further education, a research administrator and, until 2017, an elected city councillor. Now retired, her interest in promoting STEM careers for girls has led her to become an independent researcher, mainly specialising in the history of women in engineering. She is Deacon of the Incorporation of Hammermen of Glasgow for 2022-2023. Nina was recognised in the New year's Honours List 2023, receiving an OBE for services to the history of women in engineering.

Women also know history Scholars page

Women engineers blog

Presentation to the Newcommen Society

ORCHID

Twitter @ninabake2

Article for the RWM project Working 'On the Tools': some women in shipbuilding trades on the Clyde