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[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

You've got a cat with nine tails?

The naval "cat" was about 13 oz. in weight and composed of a baton (handle) and nine thongs.
The instrument traditionally has nine thongs as a result of the manner in which rope is braided. Thinner rope is made from three strands of yarn braided together, and thicker rope from three strands of thinner rope braided together. To make a cat o' nine tails, a rope would simply be unraveled into three small ropes, and each of those would then be unraveled in turn.
During the period of the Napoleonic wars, the naval cat's handle was made of rope about two feet long and about an inch in diameter, and was traditionally covered with red baize cloth. The "tails" or thongs were made of cord about a quarter inch in diameter and typically two feet long. When inflicting punishment for theft, which was considered a particularly offensive crime on board ship, the thongs were each knotted three times to cause additional pain. A new cat was made for each flogging by a bosun's mate and kept in a red baize bag until use. In Trafalgar time, it was made by the condemned sailor during 24 in leg irons. The nine strongest falls were kept, and extra lashes were administered if any of the selected falls were found to be sub-standard. If several dozen lashes were awarded, each could be administered by a fresh bosun's mate - a left-handed one could be included to assure extra painful crisscrossing of the wounds. One dozen was usually awarded as a highly sensitizing 'prelude' to running the gauntlet.
In some cases a cat with a wooden handle was used, and steel balls or barbs of wire were added to the tips of the thongs to maximize the potential flogging injury.
All formal punishments - ordered by captain or court martial - were given ceremoniously on deck, the crew being summoned to ‘witness punishment’ (though usually adults and boys separate) and drama enhanced by drum roll. Informal 'daily' canings etc. were often left unrecorded.
Contrary to popular belief, the cat was not the most feared implement; being made of rope, it was rather less painful than a leather whip or a wooden birch-rod.
For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys, a lighter model was made, the reduced cat, also known as boy's cat, boy's pussy or just pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord. If condemned by court martial however, they too would suffer the claw of the 'adult' cat.
While adult sailors received their lashes on the back, they were administered to boys on the bare posterior, just as lighter 'daily' chastisement (mainly with a cane -this could be applied to the hand, but captains generally refused such impractical disablement-, a rope's end et cetera). Bare-bottom discipline was a tradition of the English upper and middle classes, who frequented public schools, so midshipmen (trainee officers, usually from ‘good families’, getting a cheaper equivalent education) were not spared, at best sometimes allowed to receive their lashes inside a cabin. Still it is reported that the ‘infantile’ humiliation of bare stern punishment was believed essential for optimal deterrence, cocky miscreants might brave the pain of the adult cat in the macho spirit of ‘taking it like a man’, even as a ‘badge of honor’. On board training ships, where most of the crew were boys, the cat was never introduced, but their bare bottoms risked, as in other naval establishments on land, the sting of the birch, another favorite in public schools.



Anything else?

Frans.

Source: Wikipedia

[dman]

[Rockrolex]

Now if you had properly called it a "cat o'nine tails", I would have known what you were talking about. Get your nautical terms right, mate.

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Now if you had properly called it a "cat o'nine tails", I would have known what you were talking about. Get your nautical terms right, mate.

I hang my head in shame. Cat o' Nine tails it is (mind the space after o'). This cruel world needs me no longer. Farewell!


To Rockrolex I leave my entire collection of molds and fungi. Let this be noted.

Frans.

Originally Posted by Atomic

Giggity, giggity, giggity!

Daren, we seem to have the same taste.

Will you guys stop talking about Joe Pesci like that - you are creeping me out!

[dman]

Originally Posted by Avalon

Will you guys stop talking about Joe Pesci like that - you are creeping me out!

OMG!! LMAO!! Stop that crap now Al!!

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by Goodwatch

I hang my head in shame. Cat o' Nine tails it is (mind the space after o'). This cruel world needs me no longer. Farewell!


To Rockrolex I leave my entire collection of molds and fungi. Let this be noted.

Frans.

Oh, Frans. And here I didn't think you cared.

[dman]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Oh, Frans. And here I didn't think you cared.

Ed, I have extra storage space if you can't take it all, after all the Dutch have been known to keep everything they touch.

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by dman

Ed, I have extra storage space if you can't take it all, after all the Dutch have been known to keep everything they touch.

Thanks, D. That's a good friend.

[dman]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Thanks, D. That's a good friend.

[JJ Irani]

Errr....when do we actually start some SERIOUS talk about watches??

[dman]

What JJ, you want to be a more "serious" forum?

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

Errr....when do we actually start some SERIOUS talk about watches??

Frans.