![]() ![]() ![]() Patrick O'Brian, Men-of-War, Life in Nelson's Navy, W.W. Some hands screamed, but the regular man-of-war's man would take a dozen in silence." He said, 'Do your duty,' and a boatswain's mate, taking the cat-of-nine-tails out of a red baize bag, laid on the number of strokes awarded. "Then the captain read the Articles of War that covered the offence, he and all the others taking off their hats as he did so. "'Seize him up,' and the quartermasters tied his hands to a grating rigged for the purpose upright against the break of the poop, reporting, 'Seized up, sir.' "'Strip,' the captain would say, and the seaman's shirt came off. This might be extra duties or stoppage of grog, but often it was flogging. "Having considered the case, the captain gave his decision-acquittal, reprimand or punishment. If the man had anything to say for himself he might do so, and if any of his particular officers saw fit they might put in a word for him. "The master-at-arms brought his charges before the captain and the misconduct of which they were accused (usually drunkenness) was publicly stated. The boatswain's mates piped 'All hands to witness punishment,' and the crew moved aft where the Marines were stationed with their muskets and all the officers were present in full-dress uniforms, wearing their swords. Some ships set aside special days for flogging, others punished on a daily basis. Punishment always took place at six bells in the forenoon watch (eleven A.M.). In Real Life, according to Patrick O'Brian, masterful author of twenty novels on the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the process was ruthlessly efficient and commonplace. The cat was kept in a red baize bag, and when the "cat was let out of the bag," sailors were flogged on the bare back for transgressing the Articles of War. Each length of cord had three knots near its striking end. ![]() The cat was made of nine pieces of cord, each about a foot-and-a-half long, attached to a thick rope which served as a handle. Like the EDB it had a single purpose-to punish miscreants in public-and assure that inappropriate behavior was minimized. The cat-o'-nine-tails or cat was the British Royal Navy's authorized equivalent of the Everything2 Death Borg up until 1881. ![]()
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