| Abstract: | The article contains both a survey of writings on homosexuality in military organizations since the early 1970s, and a reexamination of the homoerotic involvements on the Royal Navy's HMS Africaine from 1811 to 1815. The Africaine affair, first studied by Arthur N. Gilbert in 1974, involved a sexually active coterie on board the ship that included a large segment of the crewmembers. Analytical structures for studying all-male sexuality 30 years ago have gradually been superseded by new theoretical paradigms, and these more recently developed approaches can be used effectively to provide a greater understanding of the events that led to a series of courts martial and the hanging of four of the Africaine's men in 1816. |
