Flogging in the U.S. Navy  
 

              "The master-at-arms [assisted the prisoner] off with his shirt,
               leaving him naked to the waist, but throwing the garment
               loosely over his shoulders.  Removing the port gangway
               ladder, his wrists were made fast, with a lashing, to the brass
               man-rope eyebolts, and his ankles to a small grating laid on
               the deck.  Thus standing straight up, his arms were stretched
               considerably above his head. The assistant surgeon then
               stepped up close on one side of the man to see that the
               punishment was not excessive.  The boatswain had, in the
               mean time, produced a green baize bag, which contained the
               'cats.'  These consisted of a wooden handle, about fifteen
               inches long, covered with cloth, with nine tails of white line
               about as thick as thick pack-cord, twenty inches long, and
               the ends 'whipped,' not knotted.  One of these cats was
               handed to the chief boatswain's mate, who was mildly
               cautioned by the captain to 'do his duty, and not favor the
               man, or he would be triced up himself.' ...At this the
               master-at-arms removed the blue shirt, and [the] boatswain's
               mate swung round and brought the 'cats' down across the
               man's shoulders, the master-at-arms called out, aloud, 'One -
               two,' and so on, until 'twelve,' when the captain said, 'Stop.
               Take him down.'"  Quotation and illustration from Edward
               Shippen, Thirty Years at Sea; the Story of a Sailor's Life,
               1879.