sex and 18th century sea voyages

[Doug Millison]

"David Cordingly is generous with his account of the fantastic orgies which
took place below decks on a ship's arrival in port. Men were often forbidden
to go ashore at British ports for fear of desertion, so as many women would
come aboard as there were sailors. Well into the Victorian era, ritualised
mass sex was a regular routine in Her Majesty's forces: the larger ships
could accommodate 500 copulating couples in one space, each in hammocks 16
inches apart. The imagination boggles."

from a review of
Heroines and Harlots: Women at Sea in the Great Age of Sail  by David
Cordingly 
http://www.booksonline.co.uk/booksol?ac=005119889115629&rtmo=rQtrkk3X&atmo=r
rrrrrrq&pg=/01/5/26/boher26.html


Dixon would have liked that, I expect....