Seamen

MATELOTAGE, n. This word’s not in the OED! But if you’re into queer pirates, you probably recognize it. “Matelot” is French for sailor/seaman, and “matelotage” could be translated as “seamanship.” But its actual historical usage is quite specific. It was a sort of pirate civil union.

Here’s Alexandre Exquemelin, writing sometime around 1664 (though I’m quoting a 19^th-century translated edition of his account The Buccaneers and Marooners of America), describing matelotage:

It is now time to speak of the French who inhabit great part of this island [Tortuga, part of modern-day Haiti]. We have already told how they came first into these parts: we shall now only describe their manner of living, customs, and ordinary employments. The callings or professions they follow are generally but three, either to hunt or plant, or else to rove the seas as pirates. It is a constant custom among them all, to seek out a comrade or companion, whom we may call partner in their fortunes, with whom they join the whole stock of what they possess towards a common gain. This is done by articles agreed to, and reciprocally signed. Some constitute their surviving companion absolute heir to what is left by the death of the first; others, if they be married, leave their estates to their wives and children; others, to other relations.

So per Exquemelin, you don’t have to be a pirate to enter into matelotage. You could be a hunter or a planter and still join your fortunes with another man. But the word is inextricable from the pirate life.

Here are two definitions from my JSTOR search results: Sue Peabody refers to pirates entering into “affective consensual relationships (matelotage)” and Seanna Sumalee Oakley writes “matelotage, a kind of marriage of social, economic, and probably sexual interests between matelots, sailors either independent or indentured” (Peabody and Oakley are reviewing the same book). And here’s a description from historian BR Burg in his book Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition (1995): “matelotage, an institutionalized linking of a buccaneer and another male — most often a youth — in a relationship with clearly homosexual characteristics” (128). Later, Burg adds that “a sharing of all property was a recognized feature of matelotage” (129) and then clarifies that this extended to wives. You know—property! (I could perhaps be into a hypothetical kinky queer m/m/f romance novel based on this premise, but I am deeply put off by the actual history.)

Burg’s book is kind of controversial among pirate historians, per Wikipedia, because, as far as I understand it after a cursory glance through some of the books involved—like Gabriel Kuhn’s Life Under the Jolly Roger (2010)—Burg was arguing for the universality of homosexuality among pirates. That’s pretty easy to disprove; there are plenty of written accounts that mention how much pirates loved to go ashore and hire female sex workers.

However, while “universal” is too far, I think “common” is totally justified. Burg’s right about one thing: if you were a gay man in the Golden Age of Piracy who wanted to go somewhere you could be openly gay, a pirate ship was a great bet. Sure, men were having gay sex in the Royal Navy, but you couldn’t get caught. That was trouble. Meanwhile, pirates don’t seem to have cared. We’re never gonna have ample evidence of historical people boning each other gayly because that’s just not the sort of thing that most people write down. But they do write about what should happen to their property when they die—and they write rules about what you can and can’t do on their ships. And listen, I am just a dictionary nerd who read several pages of history books to write this, but as far as I can tell, we don’t have any examples of pirates outlawing homosexuality on board.

What we do have are examples of matelotage! And sure, fine, Gabriel Kuhn, probably for some pirates, matelotage was merely an economic partnership. And for some, it was economics and close friendship. But for others it was a marriage vow. A pirate writing down “give this guy all my stuff when I die”? Come on. That’s romance right there.

Don't worry: there's a piratical small-r romance below, along with two other books I loved.

Rears & Vices (bi m/gay m/gay m, all cis, historical) by E. M. Caro. I had the honor of blurbing this very sexy pirate romance. I accepted immediately on hearing it compared to Black Sails, one of the best shows ever put on television. In Rears & Vices—that title!—Everard is a captain in the British Navy, but on seeing his former lover Vitaliy court-martialed, he perjures himself and subsequently commits treason to save him, thus pitting himself, his loyal ex D’Arcy, and Vitaliy against the Crown—so he thinks. It turns out Vitaliy is infamous pirate and weapons smuggler V. Varfolomey, and had thus already pitted himself against more than one Crown. This is such a fantastic, murder-y adventure with intrigue and romance and pirates raising a big ol’ middle finger to empires. It’s set in the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean in 1816, full of marvelous historical detail, sense of place, and pleasing attention to language. I loved it. It's super hot and there's a detailed description of a printing press. I don't know if that's a selling point for anyone else, but it is for me. Indie published; advance review copy. Out March 17.

Bailey Bangs Her Brother’s Best Friend (m/f, both cis and het, contemporary) by Liz Alden. Bailey fled her hometown in upstate New York for the city, where she can get some peace from her diet-obsessed parents and where she’s unlikely to run into her childhood bullies. She still goes back on occasion to see her brother and some old friends, one of whom is now a tattooed photographer, Silas. When Bailey decides to confront her body-image issues by doing a boudoir photoshoot, Silas is her first choice. Is this because she’s always had a crush on him? Has he always had a crush on her? Is this photoshoot a thinly veiled pretext to do something sexy together? Yes, yes, and yes, and it’s great. They sneak around and it’s as hot as it is foolish. And it’s set in a charming ski resort town, so you can feel like you’re on vacation—except you know all the locals, so you feel like one of them. Indie published; advance review copy. Out March 31. Full disclosure: Liz Alden and I are friends who meet up to write together at our local library every week. But I genuinely had a great time reading this.

Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin (nonbinary/cis m, fantasy, novella) by Tabitha O’Connell. This is a trans Beauty and the Beast remix with creepy magic plants and golden automatons, and it’s a lot of fun. Heron hasn’t quite found the way to break up with eir overbearing betrothed, but when eir mother is injured in an accident and ends up recovering at a strange manor house rumored to be inhabited by a family of mages, ey doesn’t hesitate to run to her rescue. Heron doesn’t find any mages, just a sad, mysterious recluse named Theomer. He and his overgrown magical garden fascinate Heron, who finds emself further entangled in the mystery. Indie published; bought from itch.

It’s the annual #TransRightsReadathon, a time to celebrate trans books and trans authors, so I wanted to end this newsletter with a sampling of trans romances I have loved:

• Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelley (sci-fi, trans f/nonbinary)
• Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao (contemporary, trans f/cis f)
• Show Girl by Alyson Greaves (contemporary, trans f/cis m)
• Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore (contemporary with ghosts, trans m/cis m)
• A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell (historical, trans m/cis f)
• A Lady for All Seasons by TJ Alexander (historical, nonbinary/cis f)
• The Quicksand Theatre Company by Molly Ringle (fantasy, nonbinary/cis m, I had the honor of blurbing this one)
• The Dragon Under the Hill by Juniper Butterworth (fantasy, nonbinary/cis m/cis f, full disclosure Juniper Butterworth is a friend but I would recommend this book if I had never met them, it's wonderful)
• The Potion Gardener by Arden Powell (fantasy, nonbinary/cis f)
• Double Exposure by Rien Gray (contemporary suspense, nonbinary/cis f)

And a few books that aren’t romances:

• The Uncontinented Stars by Haden Cross (sci-fi, trans-led Moby Dick in space!! full disclosure Haden is a friend and I read this before it was published, anyway now it's nominated for a LAMMY AWARD because it's GREAT)
• The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy (young adult fantasy, a young trans woman learns witchcraft, like a Tamora Pierce novel with a trans heroine and more creepy stuff)
• Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault (science fantasy starring a bi-gender baker by day and thief by night, set in magic sci-fi Québec, kind of an aromantic take on romance tropes, Claudie is also a friend but, again, I only recommend books I love)

And if you need more, I also keep a tag for trans romance on my site.

That's all for this time. I'll be back in your inbox on April 12 to wax rhapsodic about a forthcoming romance by Zen Cho.