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.