CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
FLOGGING THROUGH THE FLEET.
The flogging of an old man like Ushant, most landsmen will probablyregard with abhorrence. But though, from peculiar circumstances, hiscase occasioned a good deal of indignation among the people of theNeversink, yet, upon its own proper grounds, they did not denounce it.Man-of-war's-men are so habituated to what landsmen would deemexcessive cruelties, that they are almost reconciled to inferiorseverities.
And here, though the subject of punishment in the Navy has beencanvassed in previous chapters, and though the thing is every way amost unpleasant and grievous one to enlarge upon, and though Ipainfully nerve myself to it while I write, a feeling of duty compelsme to enter upon a branch of the subject till now undiscussed. I wouldnot be like the man, who, seeing an outcast perishing by the roadside,turned about to his friend, saying, "Let us cross the way; my soul sosickens at this sight, that I cannot endure it."
There are certain enormities in this man-of-war world that often secureimpunity by their very excessiveness. Some ignorant people will refrainfrom permanently removing the cause of a deadly malaria, for fear ofthe temporary spread of its offensiveness. Let us not be of such. Themore repugnant and repelling, the greater the evil. Leaving our womenand children behind, let us freely enter this Golgotha.
Years ago there was a punishment inflicted in the English, and Ibelieve in the American Navy, called _keel-hauling_--a phrase stillemployed by man-of-war's-men when they would express some signalvengeance upon a personal foe. The practice still remains in the Frenchnational marine, though it is by no means resorted to so frequently asin times past. It consists of attaching tackles to the two extremitiesof the main-yard, and passing the rope under the ship's bottom. To oneend of this rope the culprit is secured; his own shipmates are thenmade to run him up and down, first on this side, then on that--nowscraping the ship's hull under water--anon, hoisted, stunned andbreathless, into the air.
But though this barbarity is now abolished from the English andAmerican navies, there still remains another practice which, ifanything, is even worse than _keel-hauling_. This remnant of the MiddleAges is known in the Navy as "_flogging through the fleet_." It isnever inflicted except by authority of a court-martial upon sometrespasser deemed guilty of a flagrant offence. Never, that I know of,has it been inflicted by an American man-of-war on the home station.The reason, probably, is, that the officers well know that such aspectacle would raise a mob in any American seaport.
By XLI. of the Articles of War, a court-martial shall not "for any oneoffence not capital," inflict a punishment beyond one hundred lashes.In cases "not capital" this law may be, and has been, quoted injudicial justification of the infliction of more than one hundredlashes. Indeed, it would cover a thousand. Thus: One act of a sailormay be construed into the commission of ten different transgressions,for each of which he may be legally condemned to a hundred lashes, tobe inflicted without intermission. It will be perceived, that in anycase deemed "capital," a sailor under the above Article, may legally beflogged to the death.
But neither by the Articles of War, nor by any other enactment ofCongress, is there any direct warrant for the extraordinary cruelty ofthe mode in which punishment is inflicted, in cases of flogging throughthe fleet. But as in numerous other instances, the incidentalaggravations of this penalty are indirectly covered by other clauses inthe Articles of War: one of which authorises the authorities of aship--in certain indefinite cases--to correct the guilty "_according tothe usages of the sea-service_."
One of these "usages" is the following:
All hands being called "to witness punishment" in the ship to which theculprit belongs, the sentence of the court-martial condemning him isread, when, with the usual solemnities, a portion of the punishment isinflicted. In order that it shall not lose in severity by the slightestexhaustion in the arm of the executioner, a fresh boatswain's mate iscalled out at every dozen.
As the leading idea is to strike terror into the beholders, thegreatest number of lashes is inflicted on board the culprit's own ship,in order to render him the more shocking spectacle to the crews of theother vessels.
The first infliction being concluded, the culprit's shirt is thrownover him; he is put into a boat--the Rogue's March being playedmeanwhile--and rowed to the next ship of the squadron. All hands ofthat ship are then called to man the rigging, and another portion ofthe punishment is inflicted by the boatswain's mates of that ship. Thebloody shirt is again thrown over the seaman; and thus he is carriedthrough the fleet or squadron till the whole sentence is inflicted.
In other cases, the launch--the largest of the boats--is rigged with aplatform (like a headsman's scaffold), upon which halberds, somethinglike those used in the English army, are erected. They consist of twostout poles, planted upright. Upon the platform stand a Lieutenant, aSurgeon a Master-at-arms, and the executioners with their "cats." Theyare rowed through the fleet, stopping at each ship, till the wholesentence is inflicted, as before.
In some cases, the attending surgeon has professionally interferedbefore the last lash has been given, alleging that immediate death mustensue if the remainder should be administered without a respite. Butinstead of humanely remitting the remaining lashes, in a case likethis, the man is generally consigned to his cot for ten or twelve days;and when the surgeon officially reports him capable of undergoing therest of the sentence, it is forthwith inflicted. Shylock must have hispound of flesh.
To say, that after being flogged through the fleet, the prisoner's backis sometimes puffed up like a pillow; or to say that in other cases itlooks as if burned black before a roasting fire; or to say that you maytrack him through the squadron by the blood on the bulwarks of everyship, would only be saying what many seamen have seen.
Several weeks, sometimes whole months, elapse before the sailor issufficiently recovered to resume his duties. During the greater part ofthat interval he lies in the sick-bay, groaning out his days andnights; and unless he has the hide and constitution of a rhinoceros, henever is the man he was before, but, broken and shattered to the marrowof his bones, sinks into death before his time. Instances have occurredwhere he has expired the day after the punishment. No wonder that theEnglishman, Dr. Granville--himself once a surgeon in theNavy--declares, in his work on Russia, that the barbarian "knout"itself is not a greater torture to undergo than the Navycat-o'-nine-tails.
Some years ago a fire broke out near the powder magazine in an Americannational ship, one of the squadron at anchor in the Bay of Naples. Theutmost alarm prevailed. A cry went fore and aft that the ship was aboutto blow up. One of the seamen sprang overboard in affright. At lengththe fire was got under, and the man was picked up. He was tried beforea court-martial, found guilty of cowardice, and condemned to be floggedthrough the fleet, In due time the squadron made sail for Algiers, andin that harbour, once haunted by pirates, the punishment wasinflicted--the Bay of Naples, though washing the shores of an absoluteking, not being deemed a fit place for such an exhibition of Americannaval law.
While the Neversink was in the Pacific, an American sailor, who haddeposited a vote for General Harrison for President of the UnitedStates, was flogged through the fleet.