Gay fucking each other at the same time
Pirates respected matelotage enough that they wouldn’t interfere with the relationships.
It appears the partnership was often, if not always, sexual. In battle, they fought as a team and died together. In some cases, partners took punishment on each other’s behalf. If one matelot died, his partner inherited his property and share of the booty. It’s possible the relationships started with one man selling their services to another, to satisfy debts, get food or for protection.īut it went deeper than that. Your partner was called a ‘matelot’, which can also be translated as bunkmate. A form of same-sex civil unions, called matelotage, was also common.īuccaneer Alexander Exquemelin wrote: ‘It is the general and solemn custom amongst them all to seek out… a comrade or companion, whom we may call partner… with whom they join the whole stock of what they possess.’ Both legs were worth 1,800 pieces of eight, 200 for one eye and 2,000 if they became totally blind.īut they didn’t just have health insurance. If they lost a hand or foot in the battle, they would get 600 pieces of eight compensation.
And before he attacked Panama in the 1670s, he drew up an amazing contract for his crew. But the real Captain Henry Morgan was a privateer – a state-sponsored pirate. Pirates had gay civil unions and health insuranceĬaptain Morgan is now most famous for being the face on a bottle of rum. If one married, they simply became bisexual buccaneers in three-way relationships. The same-sex couples were established by now, so they shared everything. But he treated them little better than cattle – selling the ‘girls’ off to the highest bidder at auctions.Īnd it didn’t wash with the gay pirates. Le Vasseur believed the women would be a civilising influence. French governor Jean Le Vasseur apparently arranged for up to 1,650 female prostitutes and petty criminals to be shipped from Paris to the island.īrutal sexism was at play. Tortuga was obviously deeply homosocial and probably openly homosexual. There were far too many men on this island and too few women. The buccaneers did cause them one problem though. This is when a government grants people the right to attack merchant ships from another country. In fact, there is a long history of privateers. So they either turned a blind eye to anti-Spanish piracy or even encouraged it. The French, English and Dutch governments all wanted to break the Spanish monopoly of trade with the New World. Tortuga was split between French and English colonies. So piracy became their main source of income. This was more defensible but had even fewer natural resources. And this just made them more dependent on piracy.Įventually, the Spanish persecution forced the buccaneers to move to the smaller island of Tortuga, off the north coast of Hispaniola. But the Spanish tried to wipe out not only the buccaneers but the animals they hunted. They may have turned to piracy to subsidise this meagre income.