A Few Great Women

March is Women’s History Month. It’s a special celebration for me, after all, Vic Challenger novels are about a Victoria Vic not Victor Vic. Though the novels are first and foremost action adventure (or new pulp adventure), they are also historically accurate.

Following are introductions to five real, honest to greatness women who have appeared in the Vic Challenger novels. Some made cameo appearances and others were mentioned in conversation.

1. In book one. Vic: Time Doesn’t Matter, Vic tells Ann Darrow about someone she admires. None other than Harriet Chalmers Adams. Vic even states that Adams inspired the profession of travel writer. Adams was real, was a travel writer, photographer, explorer and definitely an adventuress. She was a contemporary of Vic. Harriet was born in 1875 and married in 1899. In 1904 she sent to South America for 3 years with her husband. The New York times said she "reached twenty frontiers previously unknown to white women." In World War I Harriet was the only female correspondent allowed in the front line trenches (for Harper’s Magazine). Her work, writing and photographs, were in National Geographic, she helped launch the Society of Women Geographers, and much more. No wonder Vic Challenger looked up to Harriet!

2. In the conversation mentioned above, Ann Darrow tells Vic that a person she greatly admires is Mary Kingsley. Ann Darrow was home-schooled and that probably strengthened the affinity to Kingsley whose education consisted of being taught to read at home. Lack of an education for women was not uncommon back then and while it of course would have influenced her life, lack of an education did not prevent her having a short but accomplished career as an adventuress. Mary lived with her parents until they died in 1892 when Mary was 30. In 1893 Mary visited the Canary Islands and it must have ignited her adventurous spirit, She visited what is now Nigeria and collected specimens for the British Museum while she explored the lower Congo River. She returned there in late 1894 and went on to Gabon. By steamboat and canoe she traveled what is now called the Ogooué River. She visited with a tribe reputed to be cannibals, climbed Mt. Cameroon (tallest mountain in West Africa at over 14,000 feet), and she was the first European to visit remote parts of Gabon and the French Congo. Mary returned to Africa in 1899 and worked as a journalist and a nurse during the Boer War tending Boer prisoners of war. During that adventure she contracted enteric typhoid and died in June of 1900 at the young age of 38.

3. In book 3, Vic: Never Give Up, Vic meets Violet Jessup. While not intending to be an adventuress, Violet had a series of (mis)adventures which I am sure none of us would envy. She was born in Argentina; her parents were Irish an example of common immigration. When she was young she contracted a disease which is believed to have been tuberculosis. Doctors told here she would die but she didn’t. When Violet was sixteen her family moved to England. When her father dies, Violet cared for her 5 younger siblings while her mother worked as a ship stewardess. When Violet was 21 her mother became ill so Violet went to work as a ship stewardess for the Royal Mail Line in 1908. In 1910, Violet secured a more glamorous job working as a stewardess aboard the White Star vessel RMS Olympic. It was one of three ships in the Olympic Class - they were high end luxury and the largest vessels of the day. She was on the Olympic in 1911 when it collided with a British war ship. The Olympic made it back to port for repairs. In 1912, Violet was working aboard a sister ship of the Olympic, the Titanic when it sank enroute to New York. She survived and saved an infant from drowning. During the Great War (World War 1) Violet was aboard the third Olympic class ship, the Britannic. The ship was being used as a hospital ship and Violet was working for the Rd Cross. The Britannic was torpedoed and sank. As it went under the propellers were sucking lifeboats under. Violet suffered a head injury but survived. After that, Violet was able to enjoy a routine life until she retired as a ship stewardess and I suspect she was glad for that particular genre of adventure to be ended!

4. In book 5, Vic: Fast, Vic meets a young girl named Nancy Wake and comments that she would be surprised if the precocious girl didn’t accomplish notable and adventurous feats later. Nancy was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia at an early age. (She was there and would have been around ten when Vic visited) Her adventures began early. She ran away from home at 16 and worked as a nurse. Later, with £200 that she inherited, she journeyed to New York City, then London where she trained herself as a journalist. Nancy lived in France with her husband when World War 2 broke out. She and her husband were separated early in the war and Nancy worked with the Resistance. In 1943 she briefly left France for Britain when she became “most wanted” by the Gestapo and they offered a 5 million reward to get her! The Nazis called her ‘the white mouse’. In Britain she joined the Special Operations Executive and in 1944 she parachuted back into France to work again with the Resistance. This is from Wikipedia and I couldn’t say anything to indicate her character better: the senior female in the SOE overseeing the agents going into France, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well." Training reports record that she was "a very good and fast shot" and possessed excellent fieldcraft. She was noted to "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character." Can you say love and heartbreak in one breath? After the war Nancy learned her husband was tortured to death refusing to betray her.

5. This woman is mentioned in multiple Vic Challenger novels. She was Vic’s hero(ess). - Nellie Bly. In the late 1800’s Nellie allowed herself to be committed to and insane asylum. Days later, she gained release with the help of lawyers from the newspaper she worked for. Nellie wrote an expose that is credited with forever changing care of the mentally ill. In 1889 she made a trip around the world (remember that lone travel by women was uncommon and there were no airplanes). She intended to match the fictitious feat penned by Jules Verne - Around the World in 80 Days. She me Mr. Verne during the trip and he remarked that he didn’t think she could do it. Nellie proved him wrong and completed the trip in 72 days! Later Nellie became a business woman and inventor. Know those steel drums (barrels) used to store and transport all kinds of liquids? Nellie invented and patented those.

More great women of Vic’s era will show up in coming novels. Vic is an adventuress and heroess and I think it is fitting that real women of that type show up from time to time. For Vic, she shares her opinion of the real heroes of the world in book 5, Vic: Fast, as a young couple leave with their children, to return to rebuild their burned out home: The baby was sleeping peacefully on the seat between the adults, both of whom radiated enthusiasm and excitement which Vic and Lin recognized - off to another adventure! “You know,” Vic said to Lin as the truck rolled away, “Nellie Bly and Molly Pitcher and other celebrity women will always inspire me, yet the real heroes for our world are like those going there - the people unnoticed by the world. Even with the reality of what must await them, they are in good spirits and eager to return and continue even though continue likely means start over. Without such people of strong determination and character, like those going there and like my great aunt, what kind of world would we live in?”

If you haven’t done something to applaud special women in your life, do it today, and don’t wait for the next special month to be reminded.