Long before the age of silicone and AI, the desire for artificial companionship on long, lonely journeys likely sparked human ingenuity. While concrete evidence is scarce, it’s fascinating to imagine the history of these sexual technologies, particularly for sailors on voyages that lasted months or even years.
In the 18th century, a Dutch ship’s captain might have commissioned a “dame de voyage” (lady of the voyage). Carved from wood and then padded with stitched canvas and stuffed with wool, she would have been crude by today’s standards. Her face might be painted with the simple, serene expression of a folk-art doll. For the crew, she would be less a realistic partner and more a symbolic effigy—a focal point for their loneliness and physical frustrations. Later, with the advent of vulcanized rubber in the 19th century, a whaling ship out of Nantucket might have had a more advanced version. This “silent companion” would be inflatable, storable, and more yielding to the touch. She would have been a closely guarded secret, a shared release valve for the immense pressures of a dangerous and isolated life at sea. These imagined histories remind us that the need for companionship and sexual release is timeless, and humans have always used the technology of their day to create solutions, however rudimentary.