A crew of 10 women and 30 female passengers have sailed down Hobart’s River Derwent on the tall-ship ‘Lady Nelson’ in a very Tasmanian celebration of international women’s day. The ship is a replica of the original brig, which transported the first European settlers to Van Dieman’s land.
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00:00Sent off with style. These women are making their own history. Setting sail on Tasmania's
00:07replica tall ship, the Lady Nelson, with an all-female crew for the first time.
00:12It's been a long time coming, so it really feels like there's been some tears already,
00:16there might be more.
00:17I've been dreaming of this since I was a teenager and I even had the concept of, oh,
00:21I could be captain one day.
00:23The crew of 10 women are all volunteers, aged between 16 and 70.
00:28We all see pirate ships and everything and think that it's so far-fetched, but it's
00:33like right here in Tasmania, like in my hometown, and just being able to learn everything is
00:38just truly amazing.
00:41After joining the crew four years ago, 70-year-old Claire was inspired to retrain as an engineer.
00:48I wanted to know that I could get myself home if I needed to, and because I showed
00:52an interest, then they went, oh, well you could become an engineer on the boat, so that's
00:58what happened.
00:59The ship is a replica of the original Lady Nelson brig, which brought the first European
01:04settlers to Tasmania.
01:06The Lady Nelson has a rich female history. The boat's historian estimates between 15
01:13to 20 per cent of modern Tasmanian women may have had an ancestor who travelled on the
01:17original vessel.
01:19Today's passengers and crew look a little different.
01:22It's a very different role these days because we are actually in charge and we're part of
01:27the committees, we're part of the organisation, we're equal as opposed to back then.
01:32They never thought that this would have been an opportunity.
01:35The sail on International Women's Day is a tribute to the women of Tasmania.
01:40International Women's Day is a tribute to women's contribution to maritime history,
01:45and aims to inspire future female sailors.
01:48A lot of people see boats as men's business. It's not men's business.
01:54I mean, way back, way back there were female pirates, so why not have all women crew?
02:01A celebration of women who are steering the ship of the maritime world.