Unruly Desires

American Sailors and Homosexualities in the Age of Sail

By: William Benemann

Narrated by: Rich Miller

In its voracious hunger to fill its decks and spars with the bodies of strong young sailors, the nineteenth century US Navy and the commercial maritime industry welcomed eccentrics, criminals, outcasts, and misfits into a community of the marginalized, one that held very different values and expectations than the towns and villages from which the young men fled, a community that offered a tentative refuge to men who were sexually attracted to other men.

Drawing from biographies and autobiographies, diaries, newspapers, government reports, Congressional hearings, religious tracts, pornography, ships' logs, medical treatises, maritime fiction, court-martial reports, personal letters and business correspondence, Benemann provides an in-depth examination of nineteenth century LGBTQ culture as it developed at sea and in America's port cities.

©2019 William Benemann (P)2022 Tantor

Great listen regardless of sexual preference

Hiighly recommend. Any history bufff will like this regardless. The only book to address this subject matter.

Great history of a lesser known subject

Well researched and laid out.
Performance was enjoyable to listen to.
Wish it covered a longer time period but that’s not the fault of the author. Given the subject matter and I’m sure scarcity of sources just covering this period must have been a daunting task. If you are interested in gay history I highly recommend this book.

Earnest Informative, Very Interesting.

Audible version. I have an interest in history and when possible a quality book on LGB history is a gem. This book is a gem✨
When I stopped listening each day I was anticipated when I’d be getting back to it. I even took in in the house and listened a couple hours more a few times not wanting to stop.
The narrator did a stellar job with a wonderful. Voice. No lag or difference in the midst when you can tell they started recording a morning session w energy.
I’ll be pursuing other audible book w this narrator.
Highly recommend, I learned a lot.
Two thumbs up. 👍👍

Hidden treasure!

I bless my stars for presenting me with this book, as I would have never known to look for it!

Reading some other reviews is enlightening in how people can be so disappointed a book wasn't written they way they would have liked. On my part, I found it to be a fascinating, factual presentation of information about 'homosexualities' (as the subtitle states) among sailors, which, though always romanticized by gay men, is usually more from fetishized gossip than detailed documentation.

Mr. Beneman is honest right at the outset, acknowledging that, even if gay life (pretty exclusively male) on board ships was prevalent, the actual documentation about it is fairly scant - and provides the reasons why, which I won't detail in this review.

Between the introduction, first chapter and final chapter, the ones in between can be read in any sequence desired, since they're topical, not sequential. And while some of the topics may seem to digress (i.e. not being explicitly gay-focused, like 'corporal punishment'), they never fail to fascinate.

The author's also very up-front in acknowledging that everyone on board wasn't a raving horn dog towards their shipmates (although plenty examples showed many were!), and that there was probably a segment of even the ones who did engage in sex(ual behaviors) with other men who may not have been what we consider to be 'gay' in modern times. In fact, whether deliberately or not, many of the examples he provides seem to show the basis for why the American Navy went hardening (pun unintended) its stance against homosexual activity, whereas in the early stages it had played more of the 'see no evil punish no evil' stance. In an atmosphere of permissiveness, there is bound to be over-stepping - some of the stories told seem to reflect a proto-"me too" movement, by men about other men.

This book is also a gold mine, providing names of people, places, art works and events that can then be investigated further. Just as a couple of teasers: the book titled "The Algerine Captive", about American seamen enslaved in Algiers. This turns out to actually be the very first American novel! The anecdote about "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century" having posed as Captain Myles Standish's wife in the painting "Embarkation of the Pilgrims" is high camp, and he sure was pretty!

There's much more intriguing, thought-provoking, and often LOL material presented in the book, making it a fascinating read and valuable resource.

A big shout-out to Mr. Rich Miller for his excellent narration!

Highly recommended to everyone who has interest in this topic.

Now let's do one about cowboys! 🤓