continued from NAGA Part 1
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 09 |
Tom lifts Percy's shirt and begins to scrub his bare torso with a stiff brush. Percy understandably grits his teeth. Meanwhile Ned is fumbling with Percy's top button as though determined that the rest of his water will get inside his trousers and not end up on his own bell-bottoms and the floor.
There's an interesting conjunction between Ned's thumb and Tom's balls in the background which have obviously been blurred, presumably because their shape was just too risqué. Lower down, Ned's jug, like the coal hod he used in Navy Romeo 2, has a spout with phallic qualities and just happens to be positioned opposite the apex of Percy's crotch, as if it might be inserted between his legs to cup his tackle or catch whatever might come out......
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 10 |
Percy is forced to turn and bend over submissively, with his head between Tom's legs, so that Tom can get going on scrubbing his back. The domination and submission implicit in this interaction is erotic enough, but the humble scrubbing brush is also called up here to become Tom's phallic symbol, gripped in his hand and strategically positioned directly in front of his crotch.
Meanwhile Ned's own phallic substitute, the jug, is also positioned level with Percy's groin and angled towards it - and his ass, which shows through his saturated trousers leaving a something to the imagination, but not much. Ned's free hand reaches underneath Percy, but it's only to grip his arm this time.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 11 |
The first thing you notice in this picture is Tom's amazing ass in the foreground and then Ned's equally well-upholstered crotch. They both seem engaged in a determined, truly manly struggle. The sexual chemistry that these two men and the photographer manage to create between them is still amazing 60 years on from the shoot. Percy, the immediate focus of their attentions fades away in comparison, pushed aside almost, even though he's just had his bell bottoms pulled down and bare ass exposed.
Tom is really getting into it now and has jumped down from his position standing on the bath, intent on attacking Percy's exposed nether regions with the same gusto he applied to his torso. He reaches towards Percy almost as though he's preparing to mount him. Ned is reduced to hanging on to Percy's shirt so he can't escape, but his open, thrusting pose adds an extra dimension of struggle and sexual excitement that's also reflected in the water swilling on the floor.
Percy's bare cheeks, glimpsed through a carefully constructed gap between Tom's arm and body, are discreetly shadowed but are far from being hidden. Tom's brush is poised close by, but strangely reversed as though he no longer intends to use it for scrubbing, but for some other torment. Tom's curling hand encircles Percy's cheeks and he has a curious, three-fingered grip on the handle of the brush which I can't quite explain, but looks sexy.
This scene has a sense of sexual menace which is far greater than anything that happens to Ted in Navy Romeo 2. Royale draws a veil over what happens next, but the next image seems to indicate that it wasn't much fun for Percy.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 12 |
There's a feast of backsides here as Percy is dragged back to his berth. His lower body is twisted so his ass is turned away slightly awkwardly, as if he's suffering discomfort down there. It leaves us just a slight glimpse of cleft, but there may have been a deliberate decision by Royale to avoid showing the 'full on' rear view, although that would have completed the image rather neatly.
Ned's S-shape pose creates a great shot of his shoulders and back - and a startling ass dimple which would have probably looked far less sexy if it wasn't for those clinging trousers he is wearing. Once again he manages to inject his own sexual dimension into the shot by thrusting his lower body into Percy's armpit. Tom pose by contrast seems almost sympathetic to Percy, he simply displays static bulk, but with cheeks nicely separated by the tight centre seam of his (water stained) trousers.
Visually, Percy's sadly sagging body and bare ass can't compete with all this testosterone.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 13 |
Percy's plight now takes a more sinister turn as his tormentors tie him, spread-eagled X-fashion, to the clothes stand on which their street clothes are hung. If you can take your eyes off Tom's bottom you'll see that Percy's unbuttoned pants are not only sagging, flap down, but to such an extent that his pubic hair can just be seen and the lines of his groin are clearly visible diving down towards his crotch (which is at exactly the same height as Tom's head - of course!).
Ted was tied to a tree in Navy Romeo 2 and his trousers peeled down to reveal his ass too but this frontal tease is much more daring, a very sexy display for it's time. It's bookended to one side by Ned's shapely figure. He's out of the main picture for once but still pushes himself slightly forward as if he's itching for more. The image is marred only by a slightly untidy composition and background, which gives a sense that this moment has been improvised rather than carefully thought out and posed.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 13 (detail) |
In the background you can see more clearly the picture on the wall which might be one of Royale's own booted Horse Guards studio images, although the undulating ground at the bottom suggests this is not a studio picture.
Also behind, hanging on the washing line is a RN shirt, made in cut down form as a bib which can be worn under the standard jersey top to give the same square-cut neck effect as a full shirt. I don't know if these were ever used by real sailors or if they are just a Royale prop. A bib like this also features in another well-known Royale picture (below)
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| Royale Studio - Sailor in shorts and bib shirt |
This picture shows a sailor wearing a similar bib with waist ties, seen from behind. Attached to it is the famous navy square collar (conspicuously unironed, tut,tut). It's possibly the same one as that seen on the left in NAGA picture 03.
This man has a more muscular physique than the NAGA/NARO crew and is therefore able to carry off shorts which are a much looser fit than the Royale Studio's norm. They give a nice sight of shapely legs and particularly the upper thighs, being actually shorter than they look. They are pulled up tight between the crotch but there's little or no stretching across the buttocks otherwise. Intriguingly, they appear to be split open down the back seam – or is that wishful thinking on my part?
I don't have any other pictures from this 'bib' series, I suspect the model might be Brian Melloy who featured in one of the 'Rigging' finds but I'm still working on that.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 14 |
With Percy now helplessly spread-eagled and anxiously looking down at his sagging bell-bottoms, Ned takes a grip on his arm and looks set to resume scrubbing in this very sensitive area. His brush is pointed directly towards Percy's crotch which is suggestive in itself, but the bristles are angled upwards slightly as if he's aiming to go down under, between his legs. That brush looks new too, so the bristles must still be very stiff. No wonder Percy is pulling away! Tom stands back, idly watching and showing us his succulent backside.
Notice the scissors lying on the floor. Perhaps they were used to cut the cord for Percy's ties, since they don't appear to have been used on his clothes which were either a real uniform or, more probably, part Royale's precious, hand-made, wardrobe stock (hence the lousy fit).
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 15 |
We don't get to see how this scene develops because the next picture jumps to showing Percy no longer spread-eagled but standing with his back to us with his hands are tied together at the back of his neck. The bullies have scrawled 'Navy Gash' on the back of his shirt and put his dress cap on his head to make him look ridiculous. He's now lost his trousers altogether and this has revealed a cute bubble butt to the boys.
The transformation of Percy in these last two images from untidy scruff to lean athleticism is a true revelation. At the equivalent point in 'Navy Romeo', the two mischief makers stand back laughing at their victim, but with Percy they stop and study the sight of his backside rather thoughtfully, perhaps wondering if they've misjudged all this. Even naughty Ned seems in awe. I suspect their own trousers might have just got a bit tighter and there's some surreptitious adjustment going on!
The massive leap in the action from 14 to 15 suggests that there were a lot more images planned for the original set. With Percy bare-assed at this point, it's not hard to imagine that they would have been completely unpublishable at that time and would have certainly been destroyed by the Police if they laid hands on them.
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash 16 |
The final image is of the cast posing. I posted this previously in NAGA 3a which introduced this series. It's not actually numbered as 16, so it's conceivable there is another picture which completes the story. The final image in Navy Romeo shows the boys walking off and leaving bare-assed Ted on public display, but if such an image exists for Navy Gash, I don't have it.
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Despite the riches of sexy male form displayed in Navy Gash, the subject matter leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable. Domination is at the centre of Royale's work* (and the motto of this blog too!). In a fictional context it can can be intensely erotic. But to me Percy seems so weedy and emaciated and so ill-equipped to defend himself that it becomes rather unattractive and goes too far. I don't feel the same about muscular 'Ted' in NARO, who looks hunky and strong throughout his ordeal and gets off more lightly. His vanity seems to somehow justify his ill-treatment anyway.
Percy's emergence as a sexually desirable man in the closing images might have changed that view given more of a chance to develop. I'd like to think that the boys relent at the end, set him free and try to make amends. I dare say something like that did happen after the shoot..........
*The next article in this series is actually called Royale Studio 4 - Bullies (pending)
Read the new series of Royale Studio articles at mitchmen from the start:-
Royale 1 - Sailors Flogged in the Rigging
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The General Upgrading of Royale Studio Posts at mitchmen
The original mitchmen Royale series (published in 2010) is currently being extensively revised and extended.
This completely new article replaces the original Royale post No 3 which covered Navy Romeo and Navy Gash.
To see which articles have been revised to date, please check the 'Come and Get It!' post. I occasionally revisit the articles listed there with further, minor upgrades which are logged there by dates.
You can access all the old and the new and revised articles
simply by clicking on the 'GIU/Royale' label at the foot of this post
'mitchmen' Royale Studio Open Archive
As an adjunct to the on-going article upgrade I am gradually creating an archive housing my entire collection of Royale images. I have now added Navy Gash to the mitchmen Royale Studio Open Archive and it includes all my original images as well as the enhanced ones I used for this post, also some material on the Royal Tournament. If you follow the link below you will find there's also a new zip file there which includes them all for easy downloading.
The Royale StudioOpen Archive at mitchmen blog
Please tell me via my profile linkif you have any difficulty downloading, Google has recently changed the file sharing system so links in older articles may have stopped working
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If you have any other Royale Studio images from this or previously published groups and would like to contribute them to the mitchmen Open Archive please contact me via my profile pagelink.