The Amazing Adventures of Three Female Explorers You Probably Haven't Heard Of
Three Female Explorers You Probably Haven't Heard Of
One of the joys of our work is uncovering the stories of incredible people whose pioneering feats are little known, and which we can help bring back to life. This is particularly satisfying when it involves the lives of courageous women who rebelled against the conventions of their age, but whose exploits have all but been airbrushed from history.
We’ve included a number of such women in our book Explorers, a collection of eyewitness accounts of trailblazing journeys undertaken by famous adventurers and conquerors. One of my greatest pleasures has been recounting their stories to my nine-year-old daughter, and seeing her wide-eyed amazement and delight. Here are three of her favourites:
Alexandrine Tinne (1835-1869), a wealthy 19th-century Dutch woman with a zeal for adventure.
In her mid-20s, she made two expeditions in search of the source of the Nile and later became the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara, inspired by stories of powerful women like Zenobia, the third-century warrior queen of the Palmyrene Empire.
In 1862, accompanied by her mother and aunt, Tinne made her first attempt to find the source of the Nile, but fell ill. Her second attempt was beset by danger and death. Struck down by fever, Tinne’s mother and a male companion died; Tinne was forced back to Khartoum, taking her mother’s body with her.
The geographical and scientific results of this expedition were presented to the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1863, by Tinne’s half-brother. The men of the Society (no women were allowed to be members) expressed considerable surprise that “ladies” should be undertaking such a hazardous trip.
Undeterred, Tinne was intent on crossing the Sahara. She eventually left Tripoli in early 1868. Early one morning, her convoy was attacked by Tuareg warriors, and she and two Dutch sailors were stabbed to death. Her body was never recovered. She was just 33.
Florence Dixie (1857-1905), a fearless British poet, novelist, travel writer, war correspondent and feminist.
She was born into the aristocratic Queensberry family and, as one obituary put it, ‘“inherited the eccentricities as well as the cleverness possessed by so many members of it”.
As a child, the then Florence Douglas was a tomboy who sought to match her brothers in physical activities, whether swimming, riding, or hunting. She rode astride, wore her hair in a short boyish crop, and refused to conform to fashion. In 1875, aged 19, Douglas married Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, a Baron known as “Sir A.B.C.D." or "Beau". Though she was only five feet tall, and her husband 6′ 2″, she became the dominant partner.
Both shared a love of adventure and the outdoor life, and are considered to have had a happy marriage, despite Beau's habits of drinking and gambling (in 1885, his ancestral home and estate had to be sold off to pay his gambling debts).
During her early life, Dixie was an enthusiastic sportswoman, intrepid rider and shot. Apart from travelling widely, in particular to South America and Africa (she was appointed a war correspondent by The Morning Post and was sent to cover the Boer War), Dixie also played a major role in establishing the game of women's football. In 1895, she became President of the British Ladies' Football Club, maintaining that "girls should enter into the spirit of the game with heart and soul".
Isabella Bird (1831-1904), a 19th-century English explorer, who became the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1892.
At a time when most women were expected to stay at home, Bird was an intrepid explorer and her chronicles of the countries she visited and the people she met made her a household name. Her story is even more remarkable in that she was a sickly child, suffering from a spinal complaint and nervous headaches.
In 1854, her father gave her £100 and told her to go wherever she wanted. She used it to travel to America, and her first book, An Englishwoman in America, was published in 1856. She later went back to live in the Rocky Mountains, becoming friendly with "Rocky Mountain Jim" Nugent, a one-eyed outlaw with a penchant for violence and poetry. Nugent, captivated by Bird, asked her to marry him, but she declined, later writing that he was "a man any woman might love but no sane woman would marry". Nugent was shot dead a year later.
Bird travelled extensively, complaining that she only felt unwell when back in Britain. While in China, she became the first European woman to travel up the Yangtze River and was attacked by a mob that called her a "foreign devil" and trapped her in a house, which they set on fire. She was rescued at the last minute by some soldiers. She published at least 10 books about her travels, numerous articles and two books of photographs.
When she died, just shy of her 73rd birthday and a few months after a trip to Morocco, her saddle was next to her bed, ready for her next adventure.
You can read the first-person accounts of these amazing women in our Explorers book here, priced £6.99 as an ebook (free to Amazon Prime members) or £13.90 as a paperback.