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Make room for women!

Women on deck

In the Desgagnés family, the sailing business was very much a boys’ club! But women were along for the ride as well.

A black and white photograph of three young women holding on to a ship’s bow. In the foreground are some logs, rigging and an anchor.

Yvonnette Cimon, Évangéline Cimon and Valentine Desgagnés

As early as the 1930s, daughters and wives of captains worked on board as passengers and cooks. Mathilda and Amélia took breaks from life in the village to sail with their husbands Zélada and Joseph.

Forward-thinking Amélia even let her daughters travel on the family schooners. Her sons were also allowed to bring their fiancées on board so as to get better acquainted with them before their marriage.

 

The G. Montcalm and the D’Auteuil II became the setting for proper courtships, complete with chaperons!

A black and white photograph. A young smiling woman, hair tied back, is standing on the deck of a ship. She appears to be washing dishes in steel pails. There are a few bundles of rigging all around her.

Dishes duty

 

The ships cooks, often members of the captain’s family, worked tirelessly. The meals were simple, especially given that the first refrigerators were brought on board in the 1950s. Their menu consisted of potato fricassée, pork roast, fish, homemade bread and molasses. Eventually the wood-burning stoves were replaced with oil stoves. A family tree representing the third and fourth generations of Desgagnés sailors. This specific chart focuses on the descendants of Joseph Desgagnés. Under the names of the family members, arrows point to their ships and their sons. Pictograms depicting each ship illustrate the family tree. The schooners represented on this family tree are those on which the women of the family have either travelled or worked.

Jeanne-Paule Desgagnés, daughter of Captain Edmond, went on many trips aboard her father’s schooner as a cook in the 1960s. She recounted life at sea and its potential for romance in the autobiographical fiction Sur la goélette d’Edmond.

A young couple posing for the camera. On the left, the man is dressed in a three-piece black suit and is wearing a tie. On the right, the young dark-haired woman is wearing a light-coloured dress with a short jacket. Behind them we see a house and a lot of snow.

Edmond and Marguerite Desgagnés

In Jeanne-Paule’s family, children boarded the family schooner at a young age. Her parents Marguerite and Edmond were a very loving couple. It was very hard for them to remain apart for weeks. As soon as she could, Marguerite and her youngest children all embarked on her husband’s coaster. Sometimes she would hop on a train with her children to meet up with Edmond halfway across Quebec, and return aboard his schooner to Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive.

Today, Yves Desgagnés, the youngest of the family, and a well-known Quebec performer, remembers going to meet up with his father as his ship was making a run to Beloeil for a cargo of dynamite. On the return trip, the children played on crates filled with explosives. Luckily, everyone got home safely!A family tree representing the third and fourth generations of Desgagnés sailors. This specific chart focuses on the descendants of Maurice Desgagnés. Under the names of the family members, arrows point to their ships and their sons. Pictograms depicting each ship illustrate the family tree. The schooners represented on this family tree are those on which the women of the family have either travelled or worked.

From sails to motors Make room for women!