YARRR... IS THAT A HARPOON, OR ARE YE JUST HAPPY TO SEE ME?Queer Chums. Charles H. Eden. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: c. 1887. 12mo. 312pp + 8pp publisher's adverts. Decorative brown cloth, gilt titles, b&w illus.
"Old Nick the Sea Captain was a rough, tough, jolly sort of fellow. He loved the life of the sea, and he loved to hang out down by the pier, where the men dressed as ladies."
I am certainly not the only youth whose view of seafaring men and matters was permanently tainted by the hilarious antics of Monty Python. However, when I was older and slogging through the ham-fisted homo-eroticism of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", I began to suspect where the Pythons might have found their inspiration. And, of course, the Simpsons' Sea Captain occasionally echoes similar sentiments.
Like so many books of this ilk, the title provides our unintentional humour while the content itself - a rollicking ol' seafaring yarn - is really fairly innocuous... save for the opening line of the introduction: "I find that boys nowadays are just as curious as their predecessors were some forty years ago..."
Fortunately, the Village People came along to help remind us all that curiosity is a fabulous thing.
For Further Research:
Sexuality in Melville's Writing
Charles H. Eden
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Python Storytime
Simpsons' Sea-Captain
In the Navy pt 1
In the Navy pt 2
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