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Piratical Punishments
What happened to the luckless
fool who crossed a pirate?
So your kid is running around pretending to be a Pirate, and
now the little loin-fruit wants to head for the high seas, not Dental
School?Well, here are some short backgrounds of some well-known pirates
that ought to scare them straight, or at the very least motivate them not to get caught! |
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Flogging with cat o' nine tails
(or rope end)As
flogging was common naval method
of enforcing discipline in the
seventeenth and eighteenth
century, flogging was therefore
specifically outlawed on some
pirate ships.
Tying to the Mast
Described in a court transcript in
graphic detail for the benefit of
newspaper readers at "The Tryal of
Captain Jeane" of (1726). A lad
aged 18 signed on to Jeane’s
merchantman ship and was assigned
duties as the Captain’s cabin boy.
Accused of stealing a dram of rum
from the Captain’s quarters,
whipped, pickled in brine and for
nine days and nights was tied to
the main mast, his arms and legs
being extended at full Length;
this did not satisfy the sadistic
Captain, who had his former Cabin
Boy untied and laid along the
Gangway, where he trod upon him
and encouraged all the Men to do
the same. The Men refused and
Captain Jeane was hanged.
Dunking from the Yard ArmA
traditional ceremony when crossing
the equator, a sailor is attached
to a spar which is hoisted high
above the ocean and dunked
repeatedly into the ocean, he’s
attached so that he does not let
go his grip with the surprise of
hitting the water. A functional
ceremony given primitive shipboard
sanitation. The naval term "heads"
refers to a hole in the head of
ship for excretion purposes…
Sold in slaveryPiracy
was both a rebellion and an
economic activity. Pirates were
not above selling shipmates as
slaves, particularly those who had
become outsiders whilst in a
pirate company because they had
transgressed the pirate codes or
agreements. Selling a shipmate
into slavery had a clear economic
benefit to the ship's company.
Walking the plankThe
offender could be blindfolded with
hands tied behind the back and
made to walk overboard. Not as
common as its feared reputation.
Marooning
The
offender, sometimes stripped
naked, was abandoned without fresh
water on a desert isle such as one
of the Tortugas, a group of flat
coral reef islands north of Cuba
and off the south of the Florida
Keys (also known as Cays). A
token of mercy was to be given a
firearm or knife, to withhold such
means to a swift end was a
particular torment.
Keelhauling
The most
feared pirate punishment of all: a
rope was passed under the ship
from side to side as would be used
for scraping barnacles off the
ship's keel. The offender to be
keelhauled was attached to the
rope and thrown overboard and the
rope pulled so as to force the
offender underwater, underneath
the ship's hull and up the other
side. The razor sharp barnacles
would cut into the unfortunate
sailor like a saw's edge,
causing great pain. The
victim might surface, gasp for
air and taunting by his pirate
comrades and then be keelhauled
back underwater for another run.
By all imagining, this would
likely be one of the slowest and
most painful ways to be killed
aboard ship. |
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