Customer Reviews

Hello Sailor!: The hidden history of gay life at sea

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The book is a great review of "gay life at sea" on Cruise and Merchant Marine ships, not the Royal or US Navies (where such a wealth of gay information will never be available) It is a great resource book for studying gay life in a time when the population spent more time at sea rather than the quick weekend trips on the present day giant ships where one never has to leave his cabin for entertainment.

On the cruise ship gay men were free to be gay long before the coming of gay lib. Moreover, the ships provided an ideal venue for would be entertainment stars or the proud drag queen.

I particularly liked the information about gay life on the Merchant Marine ships where a gay man who could not serve in his country's navy could serve on commercial ships. There the attitude toward gay men was relaxed and accommodating. My favorite line: "If the ship is not tied to the peer, what you do sexually is not queer." It was an attitude straight men, both married and single, practiced.

I would not call this a history of gay life at sea. I would call it a history of Drag Queens at sea. While a very interesting book in some respects - the gay slang, while making sense, was new to me. Very interesting book in the very, very narrow niche that it does cover, it is in no way it representative of what I would consider the whole gay community at sea.