A circa 1920s postcard in the Wellcome Collection, described as "Two sailors gazing lecherously at each other" doesn't just look extremely gayβit's ACTUALLY extremely gay.
This rare image from the 1920s shows two homosexual sailors. The stereotypical passive sailor from 'H.M.S. Fairy' appears to be sitting on the knee of his rough-looking pal whose cap tally reads 'HMS Doggo'. In archaic gay slang to 'keep doggo' meant to act as a lookout for two men having sex in a public place.
There really were several ships named HMS Fairy, but the word is used in its modern connotation for an effeminate gay man, a usage dating to the period between the first and second world wars. (Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940 by George Chauncey cites a usage of "fairy" for a gay man in 1917).
"Raggies" are men who share a bag in which polishing rags were kept, according to a Royal Navy slang dictionary, "Thus, the friend with whom you shared a bag was your 'Raggie' and, when you fell out, you parted brass rags with him."
The way it's written here in quotation marks, with a question mark; this is pretty amazing. Maybe the intent is to mock the gay sailors, but it looks more like an acknowledgement that gay sailors exist.
