Lauren Tidbury attended the ‘She Sees’ exhibition in London on the 12^th September. The exhibition celebrated the first year of the Rewriting Women into Maritime initiative, a collaboration between the Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The project is uncovering women’s contributions to maritime throughout history and in the present day, particularly stories that have been overlooked for so long. To celebrate the first year of the project, the team at Lloyd’s Register organised the exhibition as part of London International Shipping Week. As part of this they put out a call for stories of maritime women. We submitted a short piece on Honor Frost along with some photographs.

Honor’s story was chosen to be included in the exhibition along with five other women in maritime, they included a seafaring safety campaigner, a deckhand on a fishing trawler, a radio officer, an engineer and a deck officer. Alongside these stories of women in the past, the exhibition then had eighteen stories of women in maritime today. One of these stories was that of Jane Maddocks, member of the HFF Steering Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage.

It was great to see underwater archaeology represented in both the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ elements of the exhibition through Honor and Jane. As well as the photographs and text, the exhibition also featured work of a textile artist, as part of a creative storytelling approach. A photograph of Honor underwater was selected and used within handwoven traditional natural fibres. 

The team behind this initiative now want to not only ensure that forgotten voices are heard but also use these women’s stories to highlight the many opportunities that exist through a maritime career, it is hoped this work will inspire, encourage and attract more women into maritime roles, something I know that Honor’s story has already achieved, and we hope will continue.

The She Sees exhibition will continue to be on display for visitors to the  International Maritime Organization, headquarters on London’s Albert Embankment, and there is also an online version of the exhibition.