[QUOTE=Simplicio]
In any case, the quote from the British Admiral I posted was just the first thing that came up on google, my answer was general. I’m fairly certain sodomy was punishable by death basically during the entire period in question. For Colombus, for example, the wikipedia article on the Inquisition mentions it was a capital crime both under the civil courts and under the Spanish Inquisition, so I imagine it would’ve been as bad thing to be caught boinking the cabin boy on the Santa Maria as on the HMS Victory.
[/QUOTE]
IIRC, Magellan had two crew members executed for sodomy when he overwintered in Patagonia on his outward voyage. While it certainly went on, there was a great deal of risk involved if you were found out and the captain was a stickler for the law.
[QUOTE=anson2995]
Who was at sea for years at a time? I don;t claim to be an expert, but I think that voyages of longer than a month were unusual. Christopher Columbus got from Spain to the Bahamas in ten weeks on his first voyage, and that included a stop in the Canary Islands for provisions. The longest time they were out of port was five weeks. DaGama’s first voyage spent three months at sea between Lisbon and their first stop in Africa. Half the crew dief of scurvy on the return trip. What became clear was that exploration (and the subsequent trade routes they established) required friendly ports for re-provisioning… one of the driving forces behind the birth of colonialism.
[/QUOTE]
On voyages for extended lengths of time, I should have said. They would anchor a litle off shore and send the boats to land for provisions, often avoiding any native peoples.
If asked, the captain’s wife would almost surely say the hubby was “at sea”.
[QUOTE=Chronos]
How does the quote go? “The traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy, and the lash”.
[/QUOTE]
The full quote is funnier. One of many awesome Churchill quotes…
Admirals (to Churchill who had just been appointed “First Sea Lord”): “You have no respect for naval traditions”
Churchill: “Naval traditions? What are those? Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash”
[QUOTE=griffin1977]
The full quote is funnier. One of many awesome Churchill quotes…
Admirals (to Churchill who had just been appointed “First Sea Lord”): “You have no respect for naval traditions”
Churchill: “Naval traditions? What are those? Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash”
Also the title of a Pogues Album
[/QUOTE]
Churchill just came up with this wonderful stuff, didn’t he?
[QUOTE=Colibri]
IIRC, Magellan had two crew members executed for sodomy when he overwintered in Patagonia on his outward voyage.
[/QUOTE]
And bestiality. Magellan ordered the sheep executed too.
[QUOTE=iturntoyou]
I just watched a PBS documentary of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian guy who sailed the Northwest Passage and “discovered” the South Pole.
[/quote]
Man, was he lost.
[QUOTE=hajario]
All this talk of the Royal Navy have nothing to do with the OP. The OP asks about the months long voyages of the early trans-Atlantic explorers. The Royal Navy wasn’t between ports for nearly that long.
[/QUOTE]
The Royal Navy often pressed men into service. (The jokes practically write themselves don’t they?) Anyway, just because a ship came into port (see what I mean?) didn’t mean the men would be able to go ashore. On the other hand prostitutes in small boats would often go out to the ships and the men would have the opportunity to spend their money as they see fit.
David Cordingly’s Women Sailors and Sailor’s Women deals with the subject of homosexuality at sea to some extent.
[QUOTE=MGibson]
The Royal Navy often pressed men into service. (The jokes practically write themselves don’t they?) Anyway, just because a ship came into port (see what I mean?) didn’t mean the men would be able to go ashore.
[/QUOTE]
Well, if you want a good description of modern Crossing the Line ceremonies, there was one in the recent thread discussing PBS’ Carrier series. Chief Scott gives a very detailed description of his transformation from 'wog to Shellback beginning about post #160.
As for what the Crossing the Line might have been like in the days of sail… I can’t begin to guess.
I’m not sure how accurate the situation is, but C.S. Forester did research his Horatio Horn blower novels pretty well, using period documents for background, and he depicted blockade service during the Napoleonic Wars as pretty grim in this aspect, with men spending months or even years on ships that might be within sight of land the whole time, yet not allowed on land, because of fear that the largely impressed crew would desert.
[QUOTE=Chimera]
And I quote: “Shiver me timbers”
[/QUOTE] “Blow the man down…”
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
I’m not sure, now, if it’s an artifact of my prudish and ghoulish nature when I was younger and reading all I could of the age of sail, or that it’s actually the case that there are more contemporary accounts of cannibalism on the high seas than there are of homosexuality.
[/QUOTE]
Well, yeah… Everyone has to eat, you know.
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
Well, if you want a good description of modern Crossing the Line ceremonies, there was one in the recent thread discussing PBS’ Carrier series. Chief Scott gives a very detailed description of his transformation from 'wog to Shellback beginning about post #160.
As for what the Crossing the Line might have been like in the days of sail… I can’t begin to guess.
[/QUOTE]
As for what the Crossing the Line might have been like in the days of sail… I can’t begin to guess.
[/QUOTE]
Slight hijack, but a fraternity brother of mine Crossed the Line at the intersection of the Equator with the Prime Meridian. I don’t recall the special name for that, but it was a pretty big deal to him at the time.
