ABSTRACT
First adopted in 1661 and revised in 1749, The Royal Navy’s Articles of War served as the force’s criminal code and governed the operation of its courts, known as courts martial. Both versions outlawed all erotic contact between sailors. The second article in the code covered a wide range of misbehavior, sexual and non-sexual, including non-penetrative sex acts between sailors. Both versions of the Articles also banned the felony crime known as either “buggery” or “sodomy.” The law defined it as penetrative anal sex with a human or penetrative sex with an animal. (The law considered same-sex acts and bestiality as the same crime.) On land and at sea, this was a capital felony until 1861. Conviction meant the death penalty, though some convicts were able to win pardons, and the navy halted buggery executions after 1829. Even after the death penalty was removed in 1861, same-sex acts remained illegal in the navy. 1
