Hello sailor! : the hidden history of gay life at sea /

Working on a passenger ship appealed greatly to certain young, working-class men seeking escape from Britain's severe legal and social repression of homosexuals. Baker (linguistics, Lancaster Univ.) and Stanley (Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster Univ.) focus on that work and life, c. 1950-80. Merchant Navy ratings (nonofficers) found freedom and a camp atmosphere shipboard; companies apparently thought passengers enjoyed that. Below deck, ratings entertained themselves (and occasionally passengers) with drag revues and dances. How could Merchant Navy gay life be much more open than Britain's? Passengers, the authors note, relaxed conventions on holiday. Toleration also owed much to gender expectations: stewards, particularly, cared for passengers in ways the National Union of Seamen despised as "feminine" (officers invariably appeared straight). Most chapters deal with gay men's interactions with others aboard. One details seafarers' secret slang. The book closes with reentry to Britain, which decriminalized homosexuality in the military and Merchant Navy only in 1999 (or civilians, it was 1969.) The authors lean heavily on interviews of nine gay men. A larger sample might have vivified description, authenticated suppositions, and lent weight to conclusions. Many snapshots of men in drag below deck illustrate the atmosphere. Slender endnotes. No bibliography. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate collections. P. K. Cline Earlham College