It was not just the men who lived on the brink of peril when under sail at sea. Lucretia Jansz, who was enslaved as a concubine in 1629, was just one woman who endured a castaway experience. Award-winning historian Joan Druett (Island of the Lost, The Elephant Voyage), relates the stories of women who survived remarkable challenges, from heroines like Mary Ann Jewell, the "governess" of Auckland Island in the icy sub-Antarctic, to Millie Jenkins, whose ship was sunk by a whale.

Joan Druett is a maritime historian who is an expert on women at sea under sail. The author of ground-breaking studies, Hen Frigates, She Captains, Petticoat Whalers, and She was a Sister Sailor, she is also the writer of the popular Wiki Coffin mystery series. Her two books about the ordeals suffered by castaways, The Elephant Voyage and Island of the Lost, have also been well received.