Sea life was especially harsh for those men impressed into service
aboard British Naval Vessels. Flogging was the invariable punishment,
and was dolled out liberally by brutal and sadistic officers. The
slightest transgression would get a man a dozen lashes. More serious
offenses would bring two to six dozen. And for the lesser forms of
mutiny or desertion, the lashes were sentenced by the hundreds.
Most naval floggings were administered with the victim bound to one of
the ships gratings. This drawing, however, depicts the flogging at
a Capstan Bar. According to some accounts, various Captains choice
to utilize this method of immobilizing the criminal for the whipping.
The Capstan is a shipboard mechanism that was used to manually wind rope
or coil. The Capstan Bars were the lever arms that the men would,
in turn, wind the rope around the Capstan. When tied to the bar as
shown above, the victim would be forced to spread his legs wide apart.
This was because the bar's height, when fitted into the capstan, was approximately
four feet off the level of the deck.