Sea punishments—The cat—Flogging at the gangway—Flogging through
the fleet—Running the gauntlet—Keel-hauling—Hanging
The punishment most in use in the fleet was flogging on the bare
back with the cat-o’-nine-tails. The cat was a short, wooden stick,
covered with red baize. The tails were of tough knotted cord, about
two feet long. The thieves’ cat, with which thieves were flogged, had
longer and heavier tails, knotted throughout their length. Flogging
was inflicted at the discretion of the captain. It was considered
the only punishment likely to be effective with such men as manned
the royal ships. It is now pretty certain that it was as useless as
it was degrading. Lord Charles Beresford has said that, “in those
days we had the cat and no discipline; now we have discipline and
no cat.” Another skilled observer has said that “it made a bad
man worse, and broke a good man’s heart.” It was perhaps the most
cruel and ineffectual punishment ever inflicted. The system was
radically bad, for many captains inflicted flogging for all manner of
offences, without distinction. The thief was flogged, the drunkard
was flogged, the laggard was flogged. The poor, wretched topman who
got a rope-yarn into a buntline block was flogged. The very slightest
transgression was visited with flogging. Those seamen who had any
pride remaining in them went in daily fear of being flogged. Those
who had been flogged were generally callous, careless whether they
were flogged again, and indifferent to all that might happen to
them. It was a terrible weapon in the hands of the officers. In many
cases the officers abused the power, by the infliction of excessive
punishment for trifling offences. The sailors liked a smart captain.
They liked to be brought up to the mark, and if a captain showed
himself a brave man, a good seaman, and a glutton for hard knocks,
they would stand any punishment he chose to inflict, knowing that
such a one would not be unjust. They hated a slack captain, for a
slack captain left them at the mercy of the underlings, and that,
they said, was “hell afloat.” But worse than anything they hated
a tyrant, a man who flogged his whole ship’s company for little
or no reason, or for the infringement of his own arbitrary rules.
Such a man, who kept his crew in an agony of fear, hardly knowing
whether to kill themselves or their tyrant, was dreaded by all. He
was not uncommon in the service until the conclusion of the Great
War. It was his kind who drove so many of our men into the American
navy. It was his kind who did so much to cause the mutinies at the
Nore and Spithead, the loss of the _Hermione_ frigate, and (to some
extent) the losses we sustained in the American War. Lastly, it
was his kind who caused so many men to desert, in defiance of the
stern laws against desertion. That kind of captain was the terror
of the fleet. We do not know what percentage of captains gave the
lash unmercifully. Jack Nastyface tells us that of the nine ships of
the line he sailed aboard only two had humane commanders. These two
received services of plate from the sailors under their command at
the paying-off of their ships; the other seven, we are to presume,
ranged from the severe to the brutal.
After all, the cat was not essential to discipline. This was proved
time and time again while it was most in use. There were, of course,
stubborn, brutal, and mutinous sailors. A fleet so manned could not
lack such men. When such men were brought before Lord Nelson, he
would say: “Send them to Collingwood. He will tame them, if no one
else can.” Lord Collingwood was the man who swore, by the god of war,
that his men should salute a reefer’s coat, even when it were merely
hung to dry. Yet he didn’t tame his men by cutting their backs into
strips. He would have his whole ship’s company in perfect order,
working like machines, with absolute, unquestioning fidelity. But he
seldom flogged more than one man a month, and punished really serious
offences, such as drunkenness, inciting to mutiny, and theft, with
six, nine, or at most a dozen, lashes. His system tamed the hardest
cases in the fleet—good men, whom Lord St Vincent would have flogged
to death, or sent to the yard-arm. In conclusion we may quote one of
those who saw the last days of flogging: “My firm conviction is that
the bad man was very little the better; the good man very much the
worse. The good man felt the disgrace, and was branded for life. His
self-esteem was permanently maimed, and he rarely held up his head or
did his best again.” Such was the effect of the favourite punishment
in the time of the consulship of Plancus.
[Illustration: A FLOGGING AT THE GANGWAY]
Those who transgressed the rules of the ship or of the service during
the day were put upon the report of the master-at-arms. The names
were submitted by that officer to the first lieutenant, who passed
them to the captain every forenoon. Drunkards and mutinous subjects
generally passed a night in irons under the half-deck, in the care
of an armed marine, before coming up for sentence. Every forenoon,
at about half-past ten, those who were on the report went below for
their smartest clothes, in the hope that a neat appearance might
mollify the captain. Those who were in irons got their messmates to
bring them their clothes. At six bells, or eleven o’clock in the
forenoon, the captain came on deck, with a paper bearing the names of
all delinquents. He bade the lieutenant turn the hands aft to witness
punishment. The lieutenant sent a midshipman to the boatswain’s
mates, and the order was piped and shouted. The marines fell in upon
the poop, with their muskets and side-arms. The junior officers
gathered to windward under the break of the poop. The captain and
lieutenants stood on the weather quarter-deck. The ship’s company
fell in anyhow, on the booms, boats, and lee-side of the ship,
directly forward of the main-mast. The doctor and purser fell in
to leeward, under the break of the poop, with the boatswain and
boatswain’s mates in a little gang in front of them. The captain’s
first order was “rig the gratings.” The carpenter and carpenter’s
mates at once dragged aft two of the wooden gratings which covered
the hatches. One of these was placed flat upon the deck. The other
was placed upright, and secured in that position against the ship’s
side or poop railings. When the gratings had been reported rigged
the captain called forward the first offender on his list, and told
him that he had transgressed the rules of the service, knowing the
penalty. He asked the man if he had anything to say in extenuation.
If he had nothing to say the order was “Strip.” The man flung off his
shirt, and advanced bare-shouldered to the gratings, and extended his
arms upon the upright. The captain then gave the order “Seize him
up.” The quarter-masters advanced, with lengths of spun-yarn, with
which they tied the man’s hands to the grating. They then reported
“Seized up, sir.” At this point the captain produced a copy of
the Articles of War, and read that Article which the offender had
infringed. As he read he took off his hat, to show his respect for
the King’s commandments. Every man present did the same. While the
Article was being read one of the boatswain’s mates undid a red baize
bag, and produced the red-handled cat, with which he was to execute
punishment. At the order “Do your duty,” he advanced to the man at
the grating, drew the cat tails through his fingers, flung his arm
back, and commenced to flog, with his full strength, at the full
sweep of his arm. He was generally a powerful seaman, and he knew
very well that any sign of favouritism would infallibly cause his
disrating, if it did not subject him to the same torture. Some seamen
could take a dozen, or, as they expressed it, “get a red checked
shirt at the gangway,” without crying aloud. But the force of each
blow was such that the recipient had the breath knocked clean out of
him, “with an involuntary Ugh.” One blow was sufficient to take off
the skin, and to draw blood wherever the knots fell. Six blows were
enough to make the back positively raw. Twelve blows cut deeply into
it, and left it a horrible red slough, sickening to look upon. Yet
three dozen was a common punishment. Six dozen lashes were counted as
nothing. Three hundred lashes were very frequently given.
Before a severe punishment the sufferer’s messmates used to bring
him their tots of grog, saved up from supper the night before, so
that he might at least begin his torture in blessed stupefaction.
After a severe punishment they took the poor mangled body down to the
sick-bay, and left it there in the care of the surgeon. A body that
had been severely lashed looked something like raw veal. It generally
healed up, but for weeks after the punishment the sufferer’s life was
a misery to him, for reasons which may be read in the proper place,
but which need not be quoted here.
It may interest some people to know what the punishment felt like. A
ruffian has left it on record that it was “nothing but an O, and a
few O my Gods, and then you can put on your shirt.” It was more than
that. A very hardy fellow may have found a dozen or so comparatively
easy to bear. But when the lashes ran into the scores it became a
different matter. We will quote a poor soldier who was flogged in
1832 with a cat precisely similar to that used in the King’s fleet.
“I felt an astounding sensation between the shoulders, under my neck,
which went to my toe-nails in one direction, and my finger-nails in
another, and stung me to the heart, as if a knife had gone through
my body.... He came on a second time a few inches lower, and then I
thought the former stroke was sweet and agreeable compared with that
one.... I felt my flesh quiver in every nerve, from the scalp of my
head to my toe-nails. The time between each stroke seemed so long
as to be agonising, and yet the next came too soon.... The pain in
my lungs was more severe, I thought, than on my back. I felt as if
I would burst in the internal parts of my body.... I put my tongue
between my teeth, held it there, and bit it almost in two pieces.
What with the blood from my tongue, and my lips, which I had also
bitten, and the blood from my lungs, or some other internal part,
ruptured by the writhing agony, I was almost choked, and became black
in the face.... Only fifty had been inflicted, and the time since
they began was like a long period of life; I felt as if I had lived
all the time of my real life in pain and torture, and that the time
when existence had pleasure in it was a dream, long, long gone by.”
Another man, who saw a good deal of flogging in his time, has told
us that, after the infliction of two dozen lashes, “the lacerated
back looks inhuman; it resembles roasted meat burnt nearly black
before a scorching fire.” The later blows were not laid on less
heartily than the first. The striker cleaned the tails of the cat
after each blow, so that they should not clog together with flesh
and blood, and thus deaden the effect. A fresh boatswain’s mate was
put on to flog after each two dozen. Some captains boasted of having
left-handed boatswain’s mates, who could “cross the cuts” made by the
right-handed men.
For striking “an admiral, a commodore, captain, or lieutenant,” or
“for attempting to escape,” no matter what provocation may have been
given, the most lenient punishment inflicted was flogging through
the fleet. The man was put into the ship’s long-boat, and lashed by
his wrists to a capstan bar. Stockings were inserted between the
wrists and the lashing “to prevent him from tearing the flesh off
in his agonies.” The other boats of the ship were lowered, and each
ship in the harbour sent a boat manned with marines to attend the
punishment. The master-at-arms and the ship’s surgeon accompanied
the victim. Before the boat cast off from the ship the captain read
the sentence from the gangway. A boatswain’s mate then came down
the ladder, and inflicted a certain number of lashes on the man. The
boat then rowed away from the ship, to the sound of the half-minute
bell, the oars keeping time to the drummer, who beat the rogue’s
march beside the victim. The attendant boats followed, in a doleful
procession, rowing slowly to the same music. On coming to the next
ship the ceremony was repeated, after which the poor man was cast
off and covered with a blanket, and allowed to compose himself. He
received a portion of his torture near each ship in the port, “until
the sentence was completed.” If he fainted he was plied with wine or
rum, or, in some cases, taken back to the sick-bay of his ship to
recover. In the latter case he stayed till his back had healed, when
he was again led out to receive the rest of the sentence. “After he
has been alongside of several ships,” says Jack Nastyface, who often
saw these punishments, “his back resembles so much putrified liver.”
Those who lived through the whole of the punishment were washed
with brine, cured, and sent back to their duty. But the punishment
was so terrible that very few lived through it all. Joshua Davis
tells us of a corpse being brought alongside, with the head hanging
down and the bones laid bare from the neck to the waist. There
were still fifty lashes due to the man, so they were given to the
corpse, at the captain’s order. Those who died during the infliction
of the punishment were rowed ashore, and buried in the mud below
the tidemark, without religious rites. Those who survived such
fearful ordeals were broken men when they came out of the sick-bay.
They lived but a little while afterwards, in a nervous and pitiful
condition, suffering acutely in many ways. It is said that those who
were flogged through the fleet were offered the alternative of the
gallows.
A man caught thieving was generally set to run the gauntlet. The
members of the ship’s crew formed into a double line right round
the main or spar deck. Each man armed himself with three tarry rope
yarns, which he twisted up into what was called a knittle or nettle,
knotted at the end, and about three feet long. The thief was stripped
to the waist, and brought to one end of the line. The master-at-arms
stood in front of him, with a drawn sword pointing to his breast. Two
ship’s corporals stood close behind him, with drawn swords pointing
to his back. If he went too quickly or too slowly the sword points
pricked him. When he was placed in position at the end of a line a
boatswain’s mate gave him a dozen lashes with the thieves’ cat. He
was then slowly walked (or dragged on a grating) through the double
line of men, who flogged him with their nettles as he walked past
them. When he arrived at the end of a line a boatswain’s mate gave
him another taste of the thieves’ cat, and either started him down
another line or turned him back by the way he had come. It was very
cruel punishment, for it flayed the whole of the upper part of a
man’s body, not omitting his head. After running the gauntlet the
man went into hospital, to be rubbed with brine and healed. He was
then sent back to his duty, “without a stain upon his character.” He
had purged his offence. It was never again mentioned by his shipmates.
Those who contradicted an officer—or appeared to contradict him, by
answering back, however respectfully—were punished by gagging. The
lieutenants had no power to flog, but they had power to inflict minor
punishments. Gagging was one of those they inflicted on their own
initiative. The offender was brought to the rigging, or to the bitts,
with his hands tied behind him. An iron marline spike was placed
across his mouth, between his teeth, like a bit. The ends were fitted
with spun-yarn, which was passed round the head, and knotted there
to keep the iron in position. With this heavy piece of iron in his
mouth the man had to stand till his mouth was bloody, or till the
officer relented. If a man displeased an officer at any time, he was
often punished on the spot, by a boatswain’s mate. The officer would
call a boatswain’s mate and say: “Start that man.” The boatswain’s
mate at once produced a hard knotted cord, called a starter, with
which he beat the man unmercifully about the head and shoulders,
till the officer bade him to desist. The sailors found the starting
even harder to bear than the cat, for it generally fell upon their
arms as they raised them to protect their heads. It was very severe
punishment, and frequently caused such swollen and bruised arms that
the sailors could not bear to wear their jackets. It was inflicted
with very little cause. Whenever an order was given the boatswain’s
mates drew out their colts or starters and thrashed the men to their
duty with indiscriminating cruelty. It was not lawful punishment,
being wholly unauthorised by regulation. But there was no appeal;
the sailors had to grin and bear it. After 1811 it was very strictly
suppressed.
The boatswain, master-at-arms, and ship’s corporals, with their
rattans, or supplejacks, were every whit as ready to thrash the
seamen as the boatswain’s mates. They, too, carried colts, or
starters, made of 3-inch rope, so unlaid that the strands made three
knotted tails. With these they beat the seamen for any slight, or
fancied slight, until their arms were tired. The sergeant of marines
was similarly provided, but his attentions were confined to his own
department. He had no power over the bluejackets, except in fifth and
sixth rates. Besides all these petty tyrants there were the lesser
bullies, the midshipmen, who took delight in torturing the seamen in
many ways.
The old-fashioned punishments of ducking from the yard-arm, and
keel-hauling, were not practised in our fleet. They had fallen out of
use during the eighteenth century, though the French still practised
them. Captain Glascock saw a Frenchman keel-hauled early in the last
century. Instead of them, there were other punishments, such as a
disciplinarian could invent on the spot. Spitting on the decks was
discouraged by fastening buckets round the offender’s neck, and
causing the man to walk the lower deck, as a sort of peripatetic
cuspidor. Minor offences were punished by stoppage of grog, or of
some part of it; by the infliction of dirty or harassing duty; or by
riding a man on a gun with his feet tied together beneath the piece.
Capital offences were expiated at the yard-arm. The man was taken
to the cathead, a yellow flag was flown at the masthead, a gun was
fired, and all the bad characters of the ship manned the yard-rope,
and ran the victim up to the end of the yard.