16
Aug
It proved fatal for a first lieutenant when a girl disguised as a boy was a key witness at his court martial. Elizabeth Bowden, born at Truro in Cornwall, was fourteen years old and had been on board for six weeks before it was discovered that she was a girl: ‘Her father and mother being dead, she had walked from Truro to Plymouth to her sister; but not being able to gain any knowledge of her abode, was obliged, through want, to disguise herself, and volunteer into his majesty’s service. Since she made known her sex, the captain and the officers have paid every attention to her; they gave her an apartment to sleep in and she still remains on board the Hazard as an attendant on the officers of the ship.’
Jack Tar, Roy and Leslie Adkins
The court martial Bowden was witness to was for uncleanliness and sodomy. She caught the officer in question, Mr Berry, abusing one of the ship’s boys when she peered through the keyhole of his cabin door. He was found guilty and hung not long after. This is probably one of the most well known cases of sodomy that I can think of since it’s cropped up in pretty much every naval history book I’ve read that so much as touches on the subject.
(via sevenshipsdrowned)
via sea-deviltry