Ok, so this isn’t your classic #BadHistoryGoesViral.
“Mate” is older; it’s from 14th century German for “someone you share food with”. So the matey thing isn’t true
Sure! Some pirates were possibly queer, in both homoerotic & homosexual sense, but we lack evidence
CONT 👇
“Mate” is older; it’s from 14th century German for “someone you share food with”. So the matey thing isn’t true
Sure! Some pirates were possibly queer, in both homoerotic & homosexual sense, but we lack evidence
CONT 👇
Matelotage sounds like a civil union between two men, hence the romantic appeal, but it was part of a wider culture of “Tontine” which was an insurance policy commonly operated in the 17-19th centuries for sailors in which two or more men agreed to divide the kitty all or nothing
Tontine was a bit like a sweepstake or lottery on board a vessel. Sailors could agree to contract their earnings into a shared pot with a designated “last man standing” rule for whoever was left at the end. So, it wasn’t so much an intimate partnership as a pragmatic deal
Tontines originated in France and were used by governments and large companies to raise money - they were essentially annuity schemes, and Louis XIV was one such user. But they were very useful to those who led dangerous lives
Here’s a quick summary of Tontine as a financial instrument in 17th century France cambridge.org/core/journals/… 
There’s some stuff on the internet which claims gay pirates on Tortuga lived in civil partnerships, so the French governor Le Vasseur sent in 2,000 female sex workers to break up the situation and marry the men off. I’ve not seen direct evidence of this, so I can’t address it yet
In the meantime, this thread on Reddit tries to get to the truth - the idea of queer pirates seems to come from one historian whose work has been challenged, but I think it’s entirely plausible there were queer relationships - we just can’t prove it reddit.com/r/AskHistorian…
I’ll copy in my fave pirate historian @Beckalex here, in case she knows more (she usually does!)
If you’d like to know more about Pirate History or #LGBTQHistory, check out these two episodes of my BBC podcast
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…
Ok! So @Beckalex - my fave pirate historian - already recorded a podcast on the history of #GayPirates! John Swann was probably a queer pirate, and Rebecca discusses the Matelotage system of civil union app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/3928…
