more shocking spectacle to the crews of the
other vessels.

The first infliction being concluded, the culprit's shirt is thrown
over him; he is put into a boat--the Rogue's March being played
meanwhile--and rowed to the next ship of the squadron. All hands of
that ship are then called to man the rigging, and another portion of
the punishment is inflicted by the boatswain's mates of that ship. The
bloody shirt is again thrown over the seaman; and thus he is carried
through the fleet or squadron till the whole sentence is inflicted.

In other cases, the launch--the largest of the boats--is rigged with a
platform (like a headsman's scaffold), upon which halberds, something
like those used in the English army, are erected. They consist of two
stout poles, planted upright. Upon the platform stand a Lieutenant, a
Surgeon a Master-at-arms, and the executioners with their "cats." They
are rowed through the fleet, stopping at each ship, till the whole
sentence is inflicted, as before.

In some cases, the attending surgeon has professionally interfered
before the last lash has been given, alleging that immediate death must
ensue if the remainder should be administered without a respite. But
instead of humanely remitting the remaining lashes, in a case like
this, the man is generally consigned to his cot for ten or twelve days;
and when the surgeon officially reports him capable of undergoing the
rest of the sentence, it is forthwith inflicted. Shylock must have his
pound of flesh.

To say, that after being flogged through the fleet, the prisoner's back
is sometimes puffed up like a pillow; or to say that in other cases it
looks as if burned black before a roasting fire; or to say that you may
track him through the squadron by the blood on the bulwarks of every
ship, would only be saying what many seamen have seen.

Several weeks, sometimes whole months, elapse before the sailor is
sufficiently recovered to resume his duties. During the greater part of
that interval he lies in the sick-bay, groaning out his days and
nights; and unless he has the hide and constitution of a rhinoceros, he
never is the man he was before, but, broken and shattered to the marrow
of his bones, sinks into death before his time. Instances have occurred
where he has expired the day after the punishment. No wonder that the
Englishman, Dr. Granville--himself once a surgeon in the
Navy--declares, in his work on Russia, that the barbarian "knout"
itself