This is pretty outrageous, truth or fiction?

[Rumrunner-of-the-SpanishMain]

My husband gave me this information supposedly posted to the following website:

http://www.powells.com/subsection/NauticalPirates.html

I went to the link and cannot find any reference to this author or book, so I did a search at abebooks.com and found it listed there: Does anyone care to comment on the truth or fallacy of the book? Has anyone read the book? What about this author being an expert on pirates?

Burg, Barry R.

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition. English Sea Rovers in the 17th Century Caribbean..

(Book date given is in 1984)

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the

Seventeenth-Century Caribbean

by New York University Press

Catalog: Book

Media: Paperback

Author: Barry R. Burg

This book is very indepth in explain how pirates would survive on long

journies abroad by sleeping nude three to a bunk like spoons. With the

weather conditions, that was their only means of survival. It makes one

understand that sodomy was part of their lives, as they usually had several male lovers aboard the vessel. The chapter on hot racking was especially revealing, considering 90% of all pirates engaged in that. This is a very good book about pirates and their lifestyles and I would recommend it to anyone.

Ahoy me fine salty sailors. If ye be lookin for gripping adventure on the

high seas, this be the book for ye. It hoisted me mizzen mast and shivered me timbers, Yar! If you've ever wondered exactly what to do with a drunken sailor, this is the book for you. The author, Barry Richard Burg is a great expert on seamen and it really shows through. I was dissapointed to find that the nautical phrase "a three days blow" didn't mean what I thought it did, but the author's loving descriptions of how these pirates would oil each other up with whale blubber and lash each other with the cat o' nine tails more than made up for it. I'm tempted to go summon my cockswain, rent "The Pirate Movie", then kick back and mourn the passing of the days when burly pirates would start their day by opening the seacock and pumping furiously. Customers who bought titles by Barry Richard Burg also bought titles by J. K. Rowling -- coincidence? I think not.

BRAVO!!

[moricktowain]

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the

Seventeenth-Century Caribbean

by New York University Press

Catalog: Book

Media: Paperback

Author: Barry R. Burg

This book is very indepth in explain how pirates would survive on long

journies abroad by sleeping nude three to a bunk like spoons. With the

weather conditions, that was their only means of survival. It makes one

understand that sodomy was part of their lives, as they usually had several male lovers aboard the vessel. The chapter on hot racking was especially revealing, considering 90% of all pirates engaged in that. This is a very good book about pirates and their lifestyles and I would recommend it to anyone.

I happened to have that book at one time. It got lost during a move. It did have some facinating information in there, dealing with pirates and homosexuality.

I won't go into details, but he does make some REAL good points in the book.....although I will have to re-obtain the book and find the section on Hot racking, since I must have overlooked that.

That book is not for the close minded though.

I do honestly recommend the book myself, as it is a good read. Some interesting facts are in there.

Had it not of been for that book, I would not have created my pirate crew comprised of gay men.

Morick Towain

Captain of the Pirate Brethren of Texas

[PirateQueen]

I have that book in my library, and I concur with Morick. It covers an aspect of buccaneers and pirates of the 17th centuries that is often mentioned, but glossed over. I'm talking about the "buddy" system the buccaneers had, mateloge, I think is the term.

Since not a lot of historical documentation exists on the topic, it is written from the modern perspective and in a sense speculates on what relationships were like, etc. It is a serious, scholarly work.

[Capt. Flint]

Based on what reading I have done; there is no real proof that this was as wide spread an issue as some people think. According to some writers and scholars, it is no more or less common than it is today. Personally, based on all I have read, I think that it most certainly did happen, but, was not in any way a " way of life " for the men at the time. Just my opinion.... The Capt.

[Bilgemunky]

According to some writers and scholars, it is no more or less common than it is today

I can't comment on how it was then, but I know first-hand how it is now. If sailors onboard pirate ships were anything like modern sailors, then such an openly gay culture would have a great deal of difficulty getting itself established. Any two shipmates wishing to partake in each other's "company" would take great cautions to keep from getting discovered for fear of meeting with a nasty "accident."

But see, now comes the funny part - sailors take a great deal of amusement in making each other uncomfortable, and nothing makes a straight man more uncomfortable than homosexual advances. To my knowledge this sort of game never approached actual sex (by even the loosest standards,) but I have witnessed perfectly straight sailors hugging, kissing, sitting on each others' laps, and even inspecting each other privates, all for the purpose of making the new guys uncomfortable.

The easiest was to be accused of being gay was by demonstrating so little confidence in your sexuality that homosexuality would make you uncomfortable. But don't you dare be SO comfortable as to ACTUALLY be comfortable, cuz nobody really means it, its just to mess with your head.

How's that for confusing?