British women served at the same guns with their husbands, and during a contest of many hours, never shrank from danger, but animated all around them.

—Admiral Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth, reporting on the Battle of Algiers 

"Not all women living in naval vessels disembarked when the crowds of prostitutes were sent ashore shortly before the ships sailed. From the late seventeenth century until the middle of the nineteenth, it was customary for wives of warrant officers to go to sea. A warrant officer was assigned to a particular ship “in constant employ,” unlike both commissioned officers and seamen, who were signed onto a vessel only for a single commission, and who were often transferred to another ship before the commission was completed. A warrant officer and his wife might continue to live in a ship even when she was taken out of commission. 

The wives of the ancient triumvirate of warrant officers—the boatswain, the gunner, and the carpenter—went to sea as a matter of course. So did wives of the purser and the master, who associated with the commissioned officers on the quarterdeck, as well as those of lower rank: the cooper, the sailmaker, and the cook. Petty officers—men who were selected from among the able seamen to direct the less skilled—and a few seamen, usually experienced men who made the navy their career, also sometimes brought their wives to sea. 

☽ QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER SISTER EMPRESS MARIA FEODOROVNA ☾

I used to try to attach myself to my Aunt Alix after dinner, for of all the relations she was my favourite, perhaps because she was the most beautiful person in my small world. Even after all these years I remember her as I saw her then, the grace of her every movement, the sweetness of her smile. No woman ever possessed to greater degree that inde-finable quality known as charm. That, combined with beauty, will turn anyone's head, unless they be made of stone. Everyone who knew her came under its spell, grown-ups as well as children, for she could talk to either with equal fascination. She was very witty, brilliant in repartee and a wonderful mimic, yet her wit was never cruel.

Aunt Minnie, the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, was a smaller and less beautiful edition of her sister; she had the same charm, the same tact, but had more strength of character. Although she was small she could enter a room so majestically that everyone would stop talking and turn to look at her. She was a great smoker, but wanted no one to know it but the family, so if anyone else entered the room she would immediately hide her cigarette behind her back. | Prince Christopher of Greece

Young, lively and full of joie de vivre... the sisters set each other off and became the centre of a glittering crowd wherever they went. | Louisa, Countess of Antrim

The ROMAN THEATRE OF ORANGE (Vaucluse, France) is the best preserved Roman theatre in Europe.

"The King [Edward IV] was wedded to Elisabeth Gray [Elizabeth Woodville], widow, the which Sir John Gray that was her husband was slain at York field in king Harry's party, and the same Elisabeth was daughter to the Lord Rivers, and the wedding was privately in a secret place, the first day of May the year above said [May 1, 1464]"