Keelhauling
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Keelhauling, from Dutch language kielhalen ('to drag along the keel') was a severe form of corporal punishment meted out to sailors at sea.
The sailor was tied to a rope that looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, dragged under the keel (the "backbone" of the ship, which goes from the stern to the bow), then up the other side. Alternatively, the sailor was dragged from bow to stern.
Keelhauling along the length of the hull was generally a death sentence since it could take as long as three minutes, and often longer, to walk the ropes all the way back to the stern, resulting in death by drowning. Often the ropes caught and dragged on barnacles on the ship's hull: the barnacles ripped the victim's clothing and skin to shreds as he was dragged along.
In most cases, this was not an official punishment but a customary one imposed by the captain. It is alleged that this was common for pirates.
Keelhauling was legally permitted as a punishment in the Dutch Navy. The process used was to draw the offender under the keel from side to side. This was done at a steady pace, fast enough to avoid drowning but slow enough that he was dragged against the hull and severely hurt by the barnacles. The punishment could be repeated several times if the ship's surgeon agreed. The earliest official mention of keelhauling is a Dutch ordinance of 1560: the practice was not formally abolished until 1853. It was also practiced in the British and French navies until approximately 1720 - 1750.
Common alternative naval corporal punishments included, as in the British Navy, forms of flagellation (by cat o' nine tails, birching), sometimes to death, caning, and hanging from a mast. Execution by walking the plank was rare if it occurred at all, as it may have been a legend from pirate stories.
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