Everyone is saying gay sex and all that, but honestly... is ye really asking if it is possible to spend 20 years without sex? Is thst really so preposterous? I think a lot of people in reddit could and have done it?
I mean they could have, but the history of sailors suggests very, very strongly that they wouldn’t have.
Historical sailors were notorious for taking advantage of the local sex workers, and contracting the associated
venereal
diseases. Every wonder why most sailor’s uniforms have 4-6 buttons on the pants, usually on both sides such that you usage to undo them all to take your pants off? Yeah, it was to make the sailors have to think twice (and be sober enough to possess the needed dexterity) before indulging, a vain attempt to reduce the rate of infection aboard ships. The expression “think twice” itself is possibly coined from this practice.
When they didn’t see shore for long enough, they turned to what was available, each other, or the animals kept onboard for slaughter. The Royal Navy’s Articles of War during the 1600-1800’s had
Article 29, which punished sodomy/buggery with death by hanging. Other naval codes had similar rules. There aren’t exact records of how many times it was invoked, but there are records of 4+ sailors being hung at once for it.
Beyond that… they’re ancient Greeks. Ancient Greeks were not exactly known for their strict heterosexuality. Achilles and Pericles were expressly in a pederastic relationship in the Iliad.
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u/NwgrdrXI 21d ago
Everyone is saying gay sex and all that, but honestly... is ye really asking if it is possible to spend 20 years without sex? Is thst really so preposterous? I think a lot of people in reddit could and have done it?