'Black Sails' Isn't Queerbaiting — It's Proudly Queersailing Instead!

Now that Black Sails is finally on Netflix, millions of viewers worldwide who had never heard of the Starz series will get to experience one of the best and most underrated prestige television series of all time.

Often compared to Game of Thrones, Black Sails ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2017 as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

The historical fictional nature of the show sets it in the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy, and while there are depictions of real historical figures, Black Sails takes many liberties with these characters.

In addition, several of the characters on the show are gay or queer in some way, reminding us of the sexual fluidity of pirates in Our Flag Means Death. So who are all the gay characters?

Spoiler alert: Minor spoilers ahead.

Portrayed by Jessica Parker Kennedy, Max is introduced to viewers early on. She was born into slavery which led her into a life of sex work. She’s brought on as a welcoming gift for John Silver when she makes herself irreplaceable using blackmail and her connections in Nassau. Throughout the series, Max’s relationships with other women take center stage.

Hannah New plays Max’s first lover seen on Black Sails, Eleanor Guthrie, who is left by her father to oversee his dealings with the pirates of Nassau. Her sexuality is first explored through her relationship with Max, which one viewer writes is “so painfully tailored to the male gaze that I actually lost interest and stopped watching.” Throughout the series, Eleanor has relationships with both men and women, showing the fluidity of sexuality in the 1700s.

Based on a real person, Anne Bonny was an Irish pirate who worked in the Caribbean. In reality, Anne, played by Clara Paget, may have been queer since it was recorded that she disguised herself as a man as part of Calico Jack’s crew. Fellow shipmate Mary Read was also disguised as a man, and it’s been speculated that the two of them had a romantic relationship. While Anne also has a sexual relationship with Jack in Black Sails, her sexuality is explored in Season 2.

Captain James Flint is the glue that holds Black Sails to Treasure Island, so Toby Stephens’s portrayal definitely takes liberties with Flint’s sexuality. In fact, James’s whole mission is to fulfill his former lover Thomas Hamilton’s goals of saving Nassau. Through flashbacks, we learn that James and Thomas were closer than most know and that they actually had a sexual relationship in addition to their close friendship.

Although not a main character throughout Black Sails, Thomas (Rupert Penry-Jones) is essential to the plot of the show. He introduces James to the “pirate problem” of Nassau, and the two form a close friendship that turns into a romantic relationship. Thomas, however, is married to Miranda Barlow, who is described as “the cheating sort.” It all adds up when we learn how much more invested Thomas was in his relationship with James than with Miranda.

All four seasons of Black Sails are now available to stream on Netflix.