Seamen, 1912

Southampton docks in the spring of 1912. It's hard for a compulsive fantasist to be explicit in his speech, even if he knows what he wants. 'Hope, then wait and see, ' has been Reg's mode of thinking for most of his life, and though it has led him into a smattering of encounters with deckhands, stokers and their ilk, Reg's hull is yet to be breached. Now, though, Reg has heard of a new signal being used among that sort of men: to sit with a glass of ale and make out that it tastes queer. With this strategy in hand he stands watch outside the Red Lion, thirsty and craving, ready to proposition the next likely looking sailor that happens by. Broad and brooding, Fred has his own ideas about where a man might find his best fit. In his travels Fred has come across many who were also searching for that place; he has watched them, thinking long and hard on the things these men might do. Does Fred know the ruse with the glass? How will he respond to being offered a taste of a stranger's drink? Reg dares to risk finding out. Closet bear meets girdled twink in this vintage tale of cruising many ports in dangerously private storms.