Double Dr's

[cappy]

ref 73 ....perhaps nobody fancied him ......lol cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

ref 73 ....perhaps nobody fancied him ......lol cappy

But his wife has said (so he told us!) he is becoming a nice person, so if he goes back to sea he may have to watch his butt

[cappy]

yes he is a cheeky boy sometimes

[John Gill]

John, back in the late 50's early 60's a lot of gay men went to sea.
two reasons, being gay and getting caught in an act could see you in trouble, maybe even inside.
Homosexuality was still a crime then.
Consrciption was still in place until about 1960 so gay men went to sea to escape that.

Definitely"even inside''

[Lewis McColl]

John, I never sailed on passenger ships, let's face it the Queens were not only referred to as Queens because they were called Mary or Elizabeth. On your own admission Union Castle Line was the company to be in if one wanted a bed warmer for the night.
Companies I sailed with included Ocean Fleets, United Arab shipping company, Aramco, BP, Bibby Line, Stena Line (Northern Marine) Union Transport, NGSCO, CLISCO and I am sure there are a few more in there over the years. The years I spent at sea I can never actually remember wondering if he was gay or that one was gay. As long as they left me alone I could not give a monkeys what they got up to. It would appear to be a fascination with a few on here about gays, don't tell me after all these years some are wanting to come out of the closet?

[Ivan Cloherty]

As we seem to have wandered off course I'll try and get back to the title of Double DRs which with the latest posts may stand for 'Declined Rear: Declined Rapport'

I think in the era before being gay became legal, seafarers who were so inclined learnt to keep their own counsel and there would have been recognition signals obvious to those who were similiarily inclined, but not always recognised by the rest of us. The gay fraternity aboard vessels generally knew who not to approach aboard a vessel (a) because they could recognise those who didn't belong to their club and (b) they didn't want an altercation/beating from someone who was averse to their way of life. In general it was kept well under wraps in our era.

[Lewis McColl]

Don't mind me lads talk away , just pretend I am not in the room

[Ivan Cloherty]

Don't mind me lads talk away , just pretend I am not in the room

Oh! there you are, yep! definitely not the elephant in the room

[Bill Morrison]

As Ivan has mentioned we have wandered off course but for most of us who sailed in the Merch. those who's gender was not wine women and song, tended to keep to their own company though hard to miss when sun-bathing in a bikini on the after deck. It's nothing that has not occurred on ships over the centuries. An extract from the publication The British Seafarer confirms this.

[happy daze john in oz]

Don't mind me lads talk away , just pretend I am not in the room

Very good Lewis, but you did miss some very good nights of fun in the pig.
They sure knew how to make every one laugh.