Sea Shanties: Drunken Sailor IX

The ninth panel...
 
Possibly the only serious pic of the 'Drunken Sailor' Shanty series so far. The reality is that the punishment of keel hauling was at times a very life threatening situation. What happens is that a rope is thrown upon the yardarms( the horizontal bars on a ship's mass) and dragged along the bottom, hauled from the fore and aft of the ship (The front to rear) The sailor accused was then shackled and dragged underneath the ship along it's keel, or spine. The sailor would thus have to hold his breath until he was successfully hauled up on the other side. Then he would be dragged along the keel again. Early in its day, keel hauling was very dangerous to the sailor's body. Because of an accumulation of barnacles on the ships bottom, these marine animals' hard exterior would scrape and cut away at a sailors flesh, ripping clothing and skin and causing blood to draw. And stray blood is most likely to attract sharks, which at times resulted in fatalities. So as the punishment developed, further weight was added to the sailor so that he would not rub up against the barnacles. But eventually, finding the punishment too harsh, keel-hauling was replaced with flogging, such as the "Captain's Daughter," "the Cat 'o nine tails," "or the gunner's daughter."