Pirate Punishments

 

 

Punishments aboard a pirate ship were harsh. It would be quick to toss a crew member overboard for his crimes, but more inventive penalties were sometimes employed. Crimes committed on board could range from stealing treasure from the ship’s booty to inter-pirate relations of the sexual kind, but the crimes that incurred the most severe punishments were sedition or mutiny. 

 

Dunking from the Yard Arm

The offender is securely fastened to a spar, which is hoisted high above the ocean, and repeatedly dunked into the water as many times as deemed necessary. This process also formed part of a traditional ceremony when crossing the equator.

 

Flogging with a Cat o’ nine tails

This saw the offender being whipped with a multi-tailed implement. The number of lashes administered depended on the severity of the offence. In extreme cases the offender would be rowed round a port in an open boat and would receive lashes, this was known as ‘flogging around the fleet’. Each ship in the port either took part in the whipping or merely witnessed it, the punishment serving as a reminder of what awaited those guilty of insubordination. According to legend Charlotte De Berry’s first husband, Jace Jib was flogged around the fleet.

 

Hanging

This was the fate that awaited most pirates and many regarded it as little more than an occupational hazard. Sometimes a pirate was hanged by his own kind, and in this case the offender would be hung from somewhere highly visible like the yard arm. Once dead, the corpse would remain there for some time as a warning to the rest of the crew. Hanging was also the main state-sanctioned punishment for piracy, so even if a pirate managed to avoid being hung by his own brethren, he could well expect the same punishment if he was ever arrested and charged.

During the golden age of piracy, hangings were spectacular public events designed to warn the population about the evils of sea robbery, and they often involved much pomp and ceremony. The actual method of hanging was very simple though. The guilty offender stood on the back of a horses cart and a cloth was placed over his head, then after the final farewells had been said, the executioner gave the call and the horse pulled away quickly, leaving the pirate dangling by his neck, where he slowly choked to death. An alternative method was sometimes employed to give the crowd a better view. This involved the construction of a higher crossbeam and pulley system over which the noose was slung. The noose went over the pirate’s neck and the other end was connected to a horse. When the executioner gave the signal the horse bolted and the pirate was lurched high into the air, so all around could see him dance the devil’s jig.

 

Hanging in Irons

This punishment was usually reserved for notorious pirates, such as Captain Kidd, who was executed in 1701 and John Gow, who was hung in irons in 1725. The hanging took place as normal, albeit in front of a larger-than-average crowd. However instead of being buried in an unmarked grave, the body was subjected to a secondary punishment designed to drive the authorities’ point home still further. First the corpse was taken away and dipped in tar to preserve it from the elements, then it was fitted in a specially made harness of iron hoops and chains to keep the body upright and, last but not least, hung up in a prominent place – usually at a port entrance or a place where potential pirates would pass by, where it could be gawked at by passing thrill-seekers, slowly rotting until nothing much remained. Obviously, the pirate in question had no sense of what was happening at this point, but during this period many believed that the soul of an unburied person would not pass into the afterlife but remain in the mortal realm, unpardoned by God for eternity. For a religious man this was the worst of all punishments.

 

Keelhauling

This was a particularly nasty form of punishment used, not by Blackbeard or Bartholomew Roberts, but by the Royal Navy. The chain of command onboard a naval vessel differed significantly from that of a pirate ship in that, in the navy, the captain was the law and could dish out any punishment he saw fit. As a result many of the punishments meted out were exceptionally cruel, and intended more as a death sentence than a slap on the wrist, as is the case with keelhauling.

Keelhauling entailed stripping the sailor naked, binding his arms and legs and tying him to a rope, which was then passed underneath the ship from port to starboard, taking the sailor with it. It was then up to members of the crew to pull the man back out of the water, across the bottom of the boat. If the man was pulled up quickly his body would most likely scrape against barnacles attached to the ship and he would suffer horrendous lacerations across his body. If he was pulled up slowly, he was likely to drown in the process. There was a risk that the rope would snap whilst rubbing against the keel, whereby the sailor would stay trapped beneath the ship, and there was also a chance that, if the offender survived, the captain would be unsatisfied and order the punishment a second time.

 

Marooning

This meant deserting the offender on an island without fresh water. Marooning was a common punishment for sodomy, and if that had been the offence, the pair would be left on the island together. Sometimes they would be left with a knife or loaded pistol so they could commit suicide if so desired.

 

Slavery

Disobedient pirates would be sold into slavery, this was an especially popular form of retribution because it was both a punishment and a money-making exercise, killing two birds with one stone.

 

Tying to the mast

This was fairly straightforward, the offender was tied to the ship’s mast and remained there for days, even weeks, at the captain’s discretion. In one particular case, a cabin boy who was caught stealing rum from the captain’s quarters was whipped, pickled in brine and tied to the mast with his arms and legs extended to full length for nine days and nights. At the end of his ordeal, the sadistic captain was still not satisfied, so he had the unfortunate cabin boy untied and laid across the gangway, insisting that the crew walk over him in the course of their duties. They refused, and the captain was hanged.

 

Walking the plank

This is probably the punishment most often associated with piracy, but there is little evidence to suggest it was practised as often as is popularly thought. The offender was blindfolded and sometimes weighed down, their hands were tied behind their back and they were then made to walk the plank until they fell into the water and drowned. In warmer waters sharks were known to follow ships, ready to feed on any tasty pirate bits and pieces they might be lucky enough to come across, so a prisoner who was forced to walk the plank could well expect to end up being eaten by one. Walking the plank was usually a punishment chosen by squeamish pirates and those who preferred to think they had not been directly responsible for another man’s death. Obviously, forcing someone to plunge into shark-infested waters is as much murder as any other form of killing, but it avoided actual bloodshed and therefore enabled some to sleep better in their beds.

 

Woolding

This is a term meaning to wrap, or wind. It pertains to a punishment that involved winding a piece of rope around a pirate’s eyes and slowly tightening it until the victim’s eyeballs popped out of their sockets.