cimorene

i keep seeing the term 'matelotage' come up in pirate stories. english and french dictionaries failed to turn anything up, but at last i googled. and what do you know? it really WAS a formalized kind of gay marriage!

Pirates are hardly part of normal society, but it is of some interest that they had a formal, and sexual, male bonding relationship called matelotage (pp.128-30). This may have originated as a simple master-servant relationship, but Burg leaves no doubt that it came to be seen as a formal and inviolable relationship which gave both parties access and possession of each other's property. Not quite "marriage," but a relationship with clear parallels. -lesbian and gay marriage through history and culture

Most pirates, however, were not very promiscuous. They formed close bonds with one of their comrades, their "messmate." These pairings were considered sacred unions, and the lovers were treated as a couple. Called "matelotage," this bonding had many of the features of mixed-sex marriage, including the inheritance of property by one partner in the event of the other's death. -a 'yaquina bay oysters' page

The 'brethren of the coast', as they were called by the French historians Dutertre and Labat, inhabited a world without women. Even despite their reported lack of personal hygiene, they seem, however, to have entered into same-sex marriages, known as matelotage. -worldsurface.com

ETA:

calichan has this to add:

Aside from that, matelotage itself is the art of tying ropes into knots. ^_^ "The art of tying the knot" in other words. ^_~ I've only found pages on that in French.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jp_perroud/matelota.htm

I'm not going to translate the whole thing but... "Matelotage is the art of working with ropes. On ancient sailing vessels, the ropes represented the vital elements for the success of the voyage, the survival of the crew, the ship, and its cargo. The sailors who didn't have quarters benifited from it in rest and repose. In small moments of leisure, they passed them on the bridge. They played with the ropes that hung down from the pulleys on the ship. They thus learned to make rings, carpets, and protective covers for the ?espares? and many decorations from the cords. When a cord was worn out or broken because of wear from passing through the pulley, the sailors were quick to repair or replace it." The rest is pretty much about how to do matelotage yourself (...the ropework, not the pirate buggering). Since matelotage is the art of tying knots and les matelots are sailors... I would venture a guess that their word for sailor came from "people who tie knots." Hm. I'd have to look into that.