Hello Sailor!: The hidden history of gay life at sea

by Paul Baker, Jo Stanley

When gays had to be closeted, ships were the only places where homosexual men could not only be out but also camp. And on some liners to the sun and the New World, queens and butches had a ball. They sashayed and minced their way across the world's oceans.

Never before has the story been told of the masses. These are the thousands of queer seafarers, mainly stewards, who sometimes even outnumbered the straight men in the catering departments of ships that were household names and the pride of the British fleet. Hello Sailor! uniquely shows what it was like to be queer at sea at a time when land meant straightness.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Queer, LGBT, Gay

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2003

About the author

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Reviews

[Nickie · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as it could and should have been. they obviously had problems finding interviewees, there are only 9 altogether, so the evidence feels a bit thin on the ground, especially as they save them up for the latter bits of the book. the first 70 pages mostly house a description of what the book is going to talk about (get on with it) and a treatise on why people get a bit saucy on their hollies (do we need this explaining at such length?). into chapter 3, it gets much better. it's worth a read, and would make a great 100 page book, but as it is, too much repetition, not enough fresh info.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, overall, though nothing special.