K
KAICLING or KECLING to KELSON
KAICLING or KECLING
KEDGE
KEEL
Upon an even KEEL
KEEL-HAULING
To KEEP
To KEEP the luff
To KEEP off
Boat-KEEPER
KELSON
KETCH to KNOT
Search
Contact us
KEEL-HAULING
KEEL-HAULING, a punishment inflicted for various offences in the Dutch navy. It is performed by plunging the delinquent repeatedly under the ship's bottom on one side, and hoisting him up on the other, after having passed under the keel. The blocks, or pullies, by which he is suspended, are fastened to the opposite extremities of the main-yard, and a weight of lead or iron is hung upon his legs to sink him to a competent depth. By this apparatus he is drawn close up to the yard-arm, and thence let fall suddenly into the sea, where, passing under the ship's bottom, he is hoisted up on the opposite side of the vessel. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain, of which indeed he is frequently deprived during the operation. In truth, a temporary insensibility to his sufferings ought by no means to be construed into a disrespect of his judges, when we consider that this punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter, whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream; and that it is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of the water, or stunned with the blows his head receives by striking the ship's bottom.
 |
Reference Works |  |
© Derived from Thomas Cadell's new corrected edition, London: 1780, page 165, 2003
Prepared by Paul Turnbull
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/refs/falc/0757.html