Sexual and Gender Difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900

Introduction: The British Navy and the Queer Age of Sail

1 "The Unnatural and Detestable Sin": The Ban on Same-Sex Contact in the Articles of War (1661 and 1749)

2 "He was Pleased with all his other Attempts upon Him": Relationships between Three Sailors from HMS Expedition (1705)

3 Vigilante Violence: An Attack on a Member of the "Vile Clan" (1731)

4 Avoiding Trial: A Newspaper Reports Discretionary Punishments (1735)

5 Sex in the Foretop: The Trial of Hugh Ducaty and William Tofts (1738)

6 "A Very Extraordinary Kind of Sea Discipline": "Amazonian" Women Punish Buggery on HMS Princess Amelia (1742)

7 Punishing and Permitting Same-Sex Acts at Sea: Press Coverage (1747, 1757)

8 Executing a Boy for Buggery: The George Newton and Thomas Finley Trial (1761)

9 "I Did What I Had no Right to Do": Captain Graham Moore Chooses Summary Punishment (1788, 1793)

10 "Striking Examples": The Admiralty Attempts to Punish Marine James Parker (1811)

11 How to Prosecute Same-Sex Acts: Naval Jurist John McArthur on Buggery at Sea (1813)

12 "The Last Person in the Ship I Should Have Suspected": The Trial of Seaman Thomas Randall (1815)

13 "A Tragic Incident": Lieutenant John Towne’s Account of a Buggery Hanging (1833)

1 "It was much better to lay with one another": Quartermaster Thomas Pike Plans an Assignation on HMS York (1701)

2 "An Odd Affair which Lately Happened": A Cross-Dressing Cabin Boy (1739)

3 "A Correspondence . . . Not Fit to be Named": Tobias Smollett’s Captain Whiffle and Mr. Simper (1748)

4 "A Backdoor Man": Marine Officers Fight over Masculinity in a Plymouth Tavern (1755)

5 "Tender Expressions . . . Not Becoming Men": Intimacy Between Officers on HMS Raven (1775)

6 "The Little Female Tar": A Cross-Dressing Sailor Testifies in a Buggery Trial (1809)

7 "I am No Man to be Tried by a Court Martial": A Sailor Pleads "Neutrality of Gender" (1803)

8 "The Childish Vice of Boys": Adolescent Sexual Activity Aboard HMS Africaine (1816)

9 "A Thorn Has Been Given Him In the Flesh": Naval Officer James Woolls Describes His Same-Sex Desire (1818)

PART 3: In Print

1 Reports of Same-Sex Acts in Seventeenth-Century Newspapers (1650, 1654)

2 "Any Port in a Storm": A Sailor Risks Sodomy in Fanny Hill (1748)

3 The Lieutenant Thomas Wye Affair: A Buggery Case on Shore (1755–56)

4 "Indecent Familiarities with Mankind": William Benbow Recalls the Captain Charles Sawyer Scandal (1796, 1823)

5 "A Case of Unparalleled Hardship": Lieutenant Arthur W. Adair Appeals to the Nation for Justice (1807, 1809)

6 "A Full Acquittal": Captain Thomas G. Muston Insists on his Innocence in Print (1812)

7 "Familiarity with Gross Pollution": Captain Edward Hawker on Female Sex Workers and Same-Sex Intimacy in the Navy (1821)

1 "Is It Not What Great Men Do?": The Edward Rigby Scandal (1698)

2 The HMS Stag Affair: Captain Henry Angel (1762, 1805)

3 "But for this Detestable Propensity": Lieutenant William Berry (1807)

4 "Guilty of an Abominable Offence": Naval Surgeon James Nehemiah Taylor (1809)

1 Sworn Statements from the Officers’ Investigation on HMS Africaine (October–November 1815)

2 Sworn Statements from the Admiralty’s Investigation (December 1815)

3 Admiral Edward Thornbrough’s Report on the Africaine Punishments (1816)

4 Press Coverage of the Africaine Trials and Punishments

1 "Considered the Prisoner as a Father": The Lieutenant Richard Inman Scandal (1838)

2 "So Full an Acquittal": The Trials of Lieutenant Lionel R. Place (1842)

3 "To Throw Himself Upon the Protection of the Publick": Defending Lieutenant Henry Stokes (1844–1845)

4 "Revolting Charges Against a Naval Officer": Lieutenant George Armitage Brings a Perjury Accusation (1862–1864)

5 "Charged with Insobriety and Indecency": The Trial of Lieutenant Frederick W. Kuper (1871)

6 "Foul Offence and Exemplary Punishment": The Trial and Flight of Navigating Sub-Lieutenant William Renwick (1873)

7 "In the Water Closet of a Café at Gibraltar": The Trial of Seamen Robert Simpson and Henry Keenor (1874)

Appendix A: Surviving Records of British Navy Trials Related to Sex and Gender, 1690–1900

Bibliography
Index

Biography

Seth LeJacq is a Lecturing Fellow at Duke University, USA. He has published extensively on the Royal Navy’s efforts to suppress sex between males and undertakes public engagement related to this history.