Torture and Punishment

[Capt Thighbiter]

I am needin differnt techniques for torture or punishment used on board ship during GAoP.

Things like keel hauling , but prerferably a bit more obscure then that.

Not to worry mates, its for the lyrics to a song I am writing, no practical application anticipated

[William Brand]

Spiking - A man's hand was nailed to the main mast and he was given a knife whereby he might cut his hand lose. He also had the choice of pulling his hand over the large nail head. Either way his hand was destroyed and his lively hood with it.

Over the Barrel - The most common method of punishment aboard ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, mast or over the barrel of a deck cannon.

Keelhauling - The guilty party would be stripped of clothing and a rope would be passed under the ship from port to starboard. The man's hands would then be secured to the rope . Often his legs would also be bound together to prevent him from swimming. He was never weighted down in any way, for this may prevent him from hitting the bottom of the ship. He would then be tossed overboard and a selected group of men would then attempt to the pull the man out of the water, by passing him under the boat and out the other side.

Of course the captain would select the men but it rarely mattered how many people hauled the man out.

If the man was pulled slowly he would most likely drown. The shock of the cold ocean combined with the wake of the moving ship was usually more than enough to cause the strongest man to fill his lungs with sea water.

If the man was pulled quickly, he would undoubtably hit the bottom of the ship, which was covered with razor sharp barnacles. In the end he most likely bled to death from the injuries incurred or suffered a slow painful death from infection.

There was also the possibility that the rope would snap while rubbing against the keel. And then to make matters worse, if the man did actually survive, the Captain could always accuse the crew of doing the punishment incorrectly and order it done again!

With such a cruel punishment facing one's possible future it becomes readily understandable why a crew might mutiny under a cruel Captain. (More to come-- such as when Keelhauling was finally stricken from Royal Navy Law)

Toe The Line - The space between each pair of deck planks in a wooden ship was filled with a packing material called "oakum" and then sealed with a mixture of pitch and tar. The result was a series of parallel lines a half-foot or so apart, running the length of the deck. Once a week, as a rule, usually on Sunday, a ship's company was ordered to assemble into their divisions.

To ensure a neat alignment of each row, the sailors were directed to stand with their toes just touching a particular seam. Another use for these seams was punitive. A miscreant might be required to stand with their toes just touching a designated seam for a length of time as punishment for some minor infraction of discipline. From these two uses of deck seams comes our cautionary word to "toe the line."

Shot Drill - This particular punishment was the norm at Garden Island Naval Prison around the turn of the century. RN sailors were made to carry a 32 pound "shot" - or cannon ball - around a circle, and at a designated point put it down. Then they were to pick it up again and carry it once more for the measured distance. When news of this reached the Sydney newspapers there was somewhat of an outcry, although it did not seem to have much effect.

Mastheading - Often the punishment of midshipmen, who as nearly "officers and gentlemen" were not subject to the physical punishment of the sailors. The delinquent middie was sent to the "crows nest" on the top of the main part of a mast; that is, below the topmast, which was a short mast lashed to the lower mast. There the young gentleman would sit, far above the deck and often above the sea as the ship rolled. He could be there for some hours, as his superior dictated, and might miss meals too.

Lesser punishments...

Cleaning the heads - "Heads" was the name given to that part of sailing ships forward of the forecastle and around the beak which was used by the crew as their lavatory. Although the sea washed the heads clean as the ship pitched, the heads still needed a regular scrub-down with a broom.

Spitting on the deck might mean carrying a spittoon around.

Dirty clothing could mean a sailor was condemned to carry it for a certain time lashed to an oar.

[MadMike]

One of my fav's from "Captured by Pirates" was a group of pirates tying a fellow up and subjecting him to the torture of thousands of mosquitoes...

Yours, Mike

[Capt Thighbiter]

Spiking.. I'd not heard that one afore. Thanks, thats what I'm looking for.

Over the Barrel - similar to Kissin the Gunners Daughter, right?

Any one else?

[Dorian Lasseter]

Wolding - taking a short length of line, wrapping it around a person's head at the line of the temples, and using a stick or belaying pin to tighten it like a turniquet (sp), sometimes there would be knots in the line at the temples to cause more pain. Ususlly used to gain information from said torturee...

[flying-dutch-man]

a cat o' nine tails. this is a whip-like weapon that had nine slashed wihipps on it.

[Matty Bottles]

I remember reading of a captain who drilled a hole in a heavy block of wood, ordered the offender to insert his finger into the hole, and then hammered a wooden wedge into the hole with the finger, most likely crushing the finger and certainly making it impossible to remove until the wedge had been removed. The offender was then ordered to work the top ropes with this block of wood dangling from one crushed finger.

[LongTom]

Let's not forget that horror among horrors: six-water grog!

[edit] Okay, joking aside, three-water grog wasn't instituted until 1740, so six-water grog can't be any older than that. (see history of Admiral Vernon and grog here)

But it's still truly vile.

[JohnnyTarr]

Just a thought I had while reading these punishments. Why would a captain reduce the effectivness of a sailor that would be caused by some of these punishments? I understand the need for strict control over the ship but if you did not need the man and he was that much of a trouble why not just pitch him over board? Or are they tring to use him as a visual sign as to what can happen? Should cut out his tounge in that case then.

[Dorian Lasseter]

Aye Ladd...

It would be that grande idea of makin' an example out o' one sailor.... An' for that matter, much of this would be used on 'prisoners' or some such....

The Cat was usually Navy punishment, some o' them others sound like a particular captain's invention, not a widely used practice...

[Matty Bottles]

Well, insofar that I do not even know if the wooden block punishment actually happened, that seems to me to be less a punishment by example and more of a roundabout way of execution. I'm not sure what law limited the punishment of ship captains, but a heavy wooden block dangling from a crushed finger all you scurry about the top ropes seems like a fatal fall waiting to happen.

[Tall Paul]

In the Royal Navy, The rules proscribing the appropriate punishment for any given offence where pretty clearly laid out, and whilst I am sure that there were abuses, for the most part, they were adhered to.

The worst Naval punishment was considered to be Flogging Around the Fleet. A grating was lashed to a long boat, and the man to be punished was lashed to the grating. He was then rowed to every ship anchored at that port, and flogged before the assembled crew. Recipients of this punishment often didn't survive.

In the Merchant fleet, there were no such regulations, The captain of a Merchant vessel pretty much had free reign as to what punishments he administered. It is here that the more extreme punishments like Spiking, and the wooden block occurred.

Pirate punishment/Torture was often just as imaginative, Nailing a mans foot to the deck and leaving him out on a heaving deck during a storm for example. (That wasn't just in the film yellow beard.)

In Esquamelling's book "The Buccaneers of America", he describes a number of tortures used to force victims to reveal the locations of hidden valuables.

The only one that I can remember offhand, consisted of driving four wooden stakes into the ground, them tying ropes to the victims wrists and ankles, and suspending him between the four stakes, with the ropes stretched as tightly as possible.

The ropes were then struck with sticks so that the vibrations wracked through the victims body.

"Tall Paul" Adams.

[JohnnyTarr]

I have also hear of this one being done with wet rope. As the rope dried it would shrink and slowly pull the limbs out of their sockets. Very painfull and you could survive.

[John_Flint]

Sounds fun...

[Cpt. Alva]

Cordingly wrote in "Under the Black Flag" that a man would be forced to place a finger into a hole in a heavy block of wood.......then wedges would be driven into the hole (And the finger) until it swelled up and he'd be forced to carry the block for several hours..........one could easily lose a finger or hand in such a way.........

you don't miss 'em until they're gone.......I sliced one of my thumbs off once......thank goodness for modern surgery........or I might be "Nine Fingers" Alva, instead of "Eats People" Alva........

As far as the wet rope thing goes, it works....but there's a similar torture, that can be done with strips of wet rawhide......not so much a pirate torture as a Native American one, but inventive nonetheless......

they'd wrap a person, mummy-style in strips of wet rawhide, then stake him out in the sun.......as the hide dried, it would TIGHTEN around the person, squeezing them from all sides......victims often suffocated.....

[JohnnyTarr]

How about staking a man out below the high tide line and waiting.

[Mission]

I thought this was sort of interesting. It's from the footnotes of the book I am currently entering into my notes, The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete, Volume I, Edited by J.S. Cummings.

“[Footnote 2] Blasphemy was forbidden on board Spanish ships (REC, Ley 33, tit. XXIV, Libro IX) and a sailor found guilty twice was liable to have his tongue pierced with a burning iron (W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon (New York, 1939), 272); obstinate offenders were liable to marooning (A. Gschaedler, ‘Religious aspect of the Spanish Voyages in the Pacific during the 15th and early part of the 17th centuries, The Americas, IV (1948), 302-15). There was, no doubt, a feeling that blasphemy endangered the lives of all on board by provoking God’s wrath. Gambling was theoretically forbidden, but in fact there was betting on all sorts of things from the next day’s weather to cockfighting. Gemelli-Careri lost a pair of gold and emerald cuff-links to such a bet (Schurz, 271).” (Navarrete, p. 21)

Edit: REC stands for Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias.

[Daniel]

Ages ago in the Library of Congress, I read about a sailor who was whipped with the "Pizzle of an Elephant," for I know not what hideous offense.

The pizzle is the animal's male copulatory organ, as you might surmise.

[Calico Jack]

For actual torture, there is of course that "fine" example of the most terrible of men, Edward Low. R. Scoggins has a brief bit of research at http://portfolio.agnesscott.edu/rscoggins/freshman/fall/fys/piratesresearch.doc which samples the "techniques" reported of Low and others, which should be useful for a quick browse.

[MarkG]

I thought this was sort of interesting. It's from the footnotes of the book I am currently entering into my notes, The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete, Volume I, Edited by J.S. Cummings.

“[Footnote 2] Blasphemy was forbidden on board Spanish ships (REC, Ley 33, tit. XXIV, Libro IX) and a sailor found guilty twice was liable to have his tongue pierced with a burning iron (W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon (New York, 1939), 272); obstinate offenders were liable to marooning (A. Gschaedler, ‘Religious aspect of the Spanish Voyages in the Pacific during the 15th and early part of the 17th centuries, The Americas, IV (1948), 302-15). There was, no doubt, a feeling that blasphemy endangered the lives of all on board by provoking God’s wrath. Gambling was theoretically forbidden, but in fact there was betting on all sorts of things from the next day’s weather to cockfighting. Gemelli-Careri lost a pair of gold and emerald cuff-links to such a bet (Schurz, 271).” (Navarrete, p. 21)

Edit: REC stands for Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias.

The spike through the tongue was a common punishment. This was done to colonists at Jamestown who missed church during the martial law period.

Mark

[Fox]

How gruesome you all are!

Either Monson or Butler (I forget which) tells us that in the early 17thC RN the punishment for being found snoozing on watch was to have a bucket of water poured over your head. If an offender was caught a second time then his arms were raised above his head and a bucket of water was poured down each sleeve. IIRC the third offence carried a beating from all the officers of the ship.

[Jas. Hook]

Pelting prisoners with broken bottles.

Jas. Hook

[MarkG]

Let's start a round of "What do you do with a drunken sailor?"

Mark

[Captain McCool]

Haha, oh that's just cruel...

I believe I read somewhere that there existed a punishment for those who urinated in the ballast, wherein they were forced to drink a pint of the same. Apparently urinating in the ballast was fairly common in rough weather when men didn't feel inclined to relieve themselves in the head, where they would be exposed to the elements.

I believe I've also heard about "screwing out the eyes" of certain prisoners, but I don't remember where from. I seem to recall Francois l'Ollonais being mentioned specifically as doing this, but it's been a while since I saw it.

[Daniel]

I believe I've also heard about "screwing out the eyes" of certain prisoners, but I don't remember where from. I seem to recall Francois l'Ollonais being mentioned specifically as doing this, but it's been a while since I saw it.

Sounds like just a distorted version of "woolding," which was mentioned upthread a little ways. If you tightened the knotted rope around the prisoner's head enough, his eyes would burst out. L'Ollonois's men reputedly did that, and Morgan's too. Twisting the knotted rope with a piece of timber would be a "screwing"-like process.