QUEER HISTORY
By Rosie Hancock
A fortnightly series examining the history of LGBTIQ people in Australia and worldwide: vignettes of events of significance to the LGBTIQ community, historical figures, and organisations.
Why this series? Because knowing our history—transferring the stories of struggle, heartbreak, triumph, and love from generation to generation is our way of building a rich, strong, and proud LGBTIQ community.
The history of homosexuality in (White) Australia—the recorded history, at least—begins with an ill-fated pair of Dutch lovers aboard a merchant ship wrecked off the West Australian coastline in 1727. Adriaen Spoor and Pieter Engels found themselves stranded, along with the rest of the crew of their vessel Zeewijk, on the Houtman Abrolhos islands.
Marooned for months while the crew attempted to rebuild the ship from salvaged materials, the pair found—Love? Distraction? A much more enjoyable way to spend time than shipbuilding? Whatever they found, it didn’t impress the three crewmembers who stumbled upon them getting hot n’ heavy in a not-so-private corner of the Island.
The first mate’s log of the event is sobering reading:
At about 8 o’clock the Petty Officers came into our tent asking to speak to the Master to inform him that 2 persons named Adriaen Spoor from Saint Maartensdijk, [and] Pieter Engels from Gent; both boys, forsaking God, were found committing the abominable sin of Sodom and Gomorrah together yesterday afternoon. Which shrieks to the heavens and shudders through the ship’s master’s body along with the rest of the ship’s council […]
The Master with his ship’s council concluded to interrogate these 2 young men. But they would not confess; upon which we decided to place burning fuses between their fingers. Despite that, and being obstinate, they would not confess. So that we, after considering the matter precisely, decided with the whole ship’s council and with consent from the common [ship’s] folk to place them, at the earliest opportunity granted by God, each apart on one of the most northerly islands.
Yes, you read that correctly. In an attempt to get the boys to confess, they placed ‘burning fuses’ between their fingers. No doubt fearing for their lives, the boys didn’t confess. But that didn’t bother the ship’s council—on the evidence of the three crewmembers they decided to strand each boy upon a separate island. And leave them there to starve.
Unfortunately there isn’t a happy ending to this story. They didn’t escape the Islands. The ship’s council didn’t change its mind. No brave, dissenting crewmember tried to save them.
Instead, they died, and they died apart. And this is why we need to remember our history: because at a time when LGBTIQ people are more accepted than ever, when marriage equality is (fingers crossed) just around the corner for us Australians, we cannot forget the years and years and years of hard work that went into getting us here. And with that hard work, all too often, came sadness and heartache and horror.
The information for this article came from the archive of homosexuality trials at Unfit for Publication and from the Australian Homosexual History at Illawarra Queer Information.