Dames at Sea

When Admiral Elmo Zumwalt announced two weeks ago that the largest barnacle yet was going to fall from his Navy, modest cheers greeted the news. But the cheers may have been premature. Anticipating the eventual adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, the Chief of Naval Operations decreed that women personnel will follow beards as an innovation aboard U.S. ships. Since federal law now forbids the presence of women aboard all but hospital ships and transports, Zumwalt chose as his pilot project the hospital ship Sanctuary, currently in drydock; 26 Navy women are slated to join the ship before it sails for the Mediterranean early next year. Zumwalt predicts: "The day will come when we'll see women serving on warships."

They will first have to get past the less than merry wives of Norfolk. Led by Mrs. Barbara Stone, wife of a petty officer, five women have begun circulating a protest petition. Their reasons are blunt. Asked if the petition did not betray a certain conjugal distrust, Mrs. Stone snapped, "You're right. I don't trust mine." Said another mate: "It's different aboard ship. If it's the only game in town, my husband is going to play it."

Other wives are protesting the protesters, saying that they do not want the public to think all Navy wives distrust their husbands. But beyond that, something may possibly survive of the ancient superstition that women aboard ship bring evil luck. It may be that the origin of that superstition is just now coming to the surface.

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