“Gay culture has been a feature of seafaring life for centuries,” states the website for Liverpool’s maritime museum. “It is still a hidden one, even today when the Royal Navy actively recruits gay sailors. ”

The Merseyside Maritime Museum, which is dedicated to the seafaring history of that port city, is throwing a light on this hidden culture in an exhibition charmingly titled Hello Sailor: Gay Life on the Ocean Wave.

To promote the show, which runs to the end of March, a series of brief essays have been posted on the museum’s website filled with insider tidbits and an unmistakable first-hand authenticity.

Here we learn that though homosexuality was a crime in Britain until 1967 (sometimes punished by prison sentences, most famously that of Oscar Wilde, as well as the man who broke the Nazi war code, Alan Turing), the “sodomic” tradition was allowed to flourish in the Royal navy as an open secret. It thus endured as a haven for randy middle-class boys who, with often only nominal attempts to pass for straight, joined up to meet men and see the world.

The gay culture and slanguage of the British navy, the essays persuasively contend, forged an early, primitive template for what would one day be a wider gay community. Some excerpts follow:

The Gateway to Freedom

A voyage creates an exceptional environment away from home, in which people do things they wouldn’t normally permit themselves to do.The crews lived by two rules — be clean, don’t steal — everything else was tolerated.

Life on board could be a gay haven and a gay university, providing both a support network and club.

Not everyone could afford to be out. In catering, gay men were welcomed, but engineers, pursers and officers had to be more cautious — you could still lose your job and face hostility.

The Importance of Gay Port Cities

For seafarers, coming into contact with other cultures was the best way of learning that UK homophobia was not the only possible attitude towards gays. Gay pubs were popular in ports and some pub-users joined the merchant navy in order to be gay, after hearing seafarers’ tales in pubs.

[The exhibition features "memory maps," such as the one at right, drawn by gay sailors, that charted the ultra-violet topography of a secret gay world.]

Foreign ports, especially Hong Kong and New York, were opportunities to see shows with major stars and for some, an opportunity to buy glamorous frocks. Men could also bring back LPs, posters and other materials such as gay porn that was not as readily available in UK in 1950s and 1960s.

Back in your home port, you could continue your gay behavior (and risk being punished for it) or retreat back into the closet.

Camping in Plain Sight: The Navy Shows

Crew shows were vehicles for high camp and openness — a reflection of older traditions of on-board entertainment as well as wartime ENSA cross-dressing in troop shows. Taking full advantage of the freedom on board ship, gays would dress up and wear make up.

Cabins were used as backstage dressing rooms, party sites, communal chambers where sexual relations were audible to roommates and the ‘marital home’. Covert gays took care to leave no evidence around as cabins were inspected.

The ship’s bar (known as the Pig and Whistle) could be a place for flauntings, fights, unwinding, pick-ups, domestic rows, sexual rivalry, showing-off and gay wedding and divorce ceremonies.

After the Navy: Gay Culture Continues on the Sea

Most [former gay sailors] were in catering. For camp men, places such as the dining saloon were their stage, cruising place, playground, club and mini-theatre. Gay dining room stewards minced, flirted with passengers and made a camp show of waiting tables.

Passengers, especially regulars, welcomed camp seafarers because they gave good service. Camp seafarers were aware of how far they could go, especially in passenger areas. They were on licence, but often pushed the boundaries [something they could only do at sea.]

Camp men adapted their uniforms in feminine ways. Waiters could be sent back by the head waiter if they were dressed too overtly femininely, but they still tried.

Passenger spaces could be used to advantage, for example as an opportunity for making liaisons or to try on women passengers’ clothes. In front of the passengers, gays talked privately to each other using the secret language of Polari.

The Secret Language of Polari

Polari was the secretive language widely used by the British gay community from the 1900s to the 1970s. It was based on slang words deriving from a variety of different sources, including rhyming slang, and backslang (spelling words backwards).

The language helped gay men talk to each in front of straight people… Polari was used in crew shows on ship and some straight shipmates picked up the language from these shows.

Examples:

How bona to varda your dolly old eek!
How good to see your dear old face!

Vada the dolly dish, shame about his bijou lallies
Look at the attractive man, shame about his short legs

basket — the bulge of male genitals through clothes
fantabulosa — wonderful
troll — to walk about (especially looking for trade)
omi – man
polone — woman
omi-polone — effeminate man, a homosexual
polari — to chat

In the 1970s the use of Polari started declining. The 1967 sexual offences act made homosexuality legal, so there was less need for a secret form of language. The 1970s gay liberation movement found the language to be old fashioned and sexist. However, it was still used on ships up until the 1980s. Today Polari is experiencing a mini-revival due to recent stage shows …

Learn more about gay sailor culture

The Merseyside Maritime Museum
The book Hello Sailor: The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea
The Hello Sailor podcast, featuring
sailors using Polari and interviews.

Nightcharm’s Special Feature Article:
Sailors by John Calendo