Everyone knows that pirates are unscrupulous criminals who hijack and plunder sea vessels. Despite all the unscrupulousness and the fact that every pirate is a complete bandit, among the pirates there was also a system of rewards and punishments.
Landing on a desert island
The punishment of landing on a desert island or maronig had nothing to do with the romance of Robinson Crusoe. This was the most severe punishment for a sailor. As a rule, a sailor landed on the island had only one way out - suicide! Usually pirates used three punishments - "Law of Moses", throwing overboard and maroning. The latter punishment was applied to thieves, perjurers and captains of rebellious ships. When landing on the island, a person was left with all the clothes he was wearing at the time of the sentencing, a bottle of water or rum, a pistol and some gunpowder and bullets. But if in the novels about "Robinson Crusoe" and "Treasure Island" a person found himself on a relatively large island inhabited by animals and plants, then in real life a tiny piece of land was chosen as the last refuge,surrounded on all sides by the ocean, a lonely reef or rock. Often, these islands were completely hidden under water at high tide. Few managed to escape after this..
Walking the plank
Walking on the board was one of the most sophisticated tortures of pirates of the 16th-18th centuries. The prisoner, with his hands tied and blindfolded, was placed on a board thrown from the side into the sea. Sooner or later, the unfortunate fell into the water and, depending on the situation, could be dragged onto the deck or drowned. It is known for certain that it was in this way that Bartholomew Roberts sought ransom from his captives, and this execution was also common among Chinese pirates. More often than not, pirates simply threw the victim with their hands tied and a cannonball tied to their feet into the sea.
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Lash punishment
Lashing, otherwise called the law of Moses. Usually, 40 or 39 blows were assigned, with fewer blows indicating some semblance of humanity, since according to the Old Testament, 40 lashes actually meant the death penalty. Of course, 39 blows were enough for the punished person to die, but punishing 40 blows, like Pontius Pilate, was considered inhumane. More often than not, the captain or team would punish them with fewer lashes, depending on the severity of the crime. It is noteworthy that the tradition of punishing a criminal with 40 blows is not biblical, but Roman. In ancient Rome, if after the punishment the criminal remained alive, he had the right to kill the executioner, therefore 40 blows usually became fatal. Using the same logic, the Catholics felt that 39 would not lead to the death of the punished. During the Golden Age of piracy, 39 lashes were extremely common.
Nine-tailed
The nine-tail was common on merchant marine vessels as a punishment. It was a cruel weapon, consisting of 9 thin leather lashes, woven at the handle into a single cord, with metal blades or balls attached to the ends of the lashes. Usually, the whip was kept dry and swarmed with bacteria and parasites. After the punishment, the body of the offender was abundantly covered with salt. But this was done not to inflict great suffering, but to destroy the infection. If sea water got into open wounds, this could lead to blood poisoning or gangrene. Usually, the decision to flog was made by the captain, but only with the permission of the crew, except in cases where flogging was stipulated as a punishment under the pirate code - for example, for theft. However, the executor of the punishment was usually the quartermaster,thanks to which the pirates were confident in the impossibility of autocracy on the part of the captain.
In the merchant and navy, corporal punishment was so common that the nine-tail was called the "captain's daughter." For example, in one of the famous English songs about a sailor there are the words "Give him a taste of the captain's daughter." Without knowing the nautical slang of those times, the meaning of the song can be changed to the exact opposite.
Burying in the sand
This is a typical pirate execution. A man was buried on the shore at low tide so that one head protruded. When the tide began, the guilty one choked. It is practically impossible to get out of such a trap on your own, since the water exerts strong pressure on the sand. In addition, death often occurred not from drowning, but from the inability to breathe normally in the conditions of compressed sand.
Under keel pull
The keel pull was not a pirate punishment, it was used in the British Royal Navy. On English ships, the captain was the judge, the law and his authority was absolute. Any disobedience to the captain was punished in the most severe way. One such punishment was stretching under the keel. The punished person was stripped and his hands tied. And sometimes the legs were tied to a long rope, and the other end of the rope was passed under the keel and pulled from the opposite side. Several people from the team dragged the body of the unfortunate man into the water, dragged it under the keel and pulled it out from the opposite side. The tied arms and legs did not allow the person to stay afloat, and his lungs instantly filled with water. If the rope was pulled too fast, the body of the punished was forced through the thicket with razor-sharp shells of mollusks,abundantly covering the underwater part of the ship. If the rope was pulled too slowly, the oncoming stream of water hit the body against the bottom and the person was choked with sea water.
Dragging behind the ship
The guilty (or prisoner) was thrown overboard, having previously tied him by the arms (or by the legs)! And then they dragged him for several hours behind the ship. As a result, the poor fellow either choked, or froze, or was simply eaten by sharks … The theme of this execution is well disclosed in Jack London's "Sea Wolf".
Water torture
Such torture was actively used by the Inquisition in the Old World for many centuries, but the pirates only borrowed it, with the only difference that they used sea water, and in some cases used urine mixed with liquid feces. The victim was given water to drink until he was turned inside out or burst. During torture, the offender's nose was pinched and a liquid was poured into his mouth through a funnel, which he had to swallow before taking a new breath. All this was repeated long enough to infuse the maximum amount of liquid into the stomach. Then the angle of inclination of the poor man's body was changed, he was laid on his back in a horizontal position, and the weight of a full stomach squeezed his lungs and heart. The feeling of shortness of breath and heaviness in the chest complemented the pain from the distended stomach.
Hanging
Hanging was used as a punishment for piracy, but the pirates themselves did not disdain this type of execution! In general, to be honest, for the period of the XVI-XVIII centuries, this type of execution as hanging was the most common. The agony of the executed man lasted for several minutes and death by hanging was considered one of the most cruel punishments. In the 16th and 17th centuries, pirate executions were always carried out publicly to instill fear in ordinary sailors. Usually the port docks became the place of execution, and the bodies of state officials continued to hang for several days, and sometimes weeks. The hanging itself was presented as a magnificent ceremony. According to British maritime laws, a person convicted of piracy had to be hanged within 10 days of the date of the verdict. This was done so that onlookers from all nearby cities could gather for execution. On the appointed day, the prisoner met with the priest for repentance. Sometimes this was also done in order to make it possible to pay a ransom for the sentenced person.
Hanging in chains
Hanging in chains was used not so much by the pirates themselves, as, on the contrary, was used against them and was supposed to instill "sacred horror" in all pirates. It was good news for the pirate that he was already dead. But the unburied body doomed the immortal soul to eternal wandering and torment, and this acted on the superstitious pirates more than the fear of death. The body was placed in chains or an iron cage and it rotted under the scorching sun and pecked at by birds. Eventually the remains fell into the water, where they were dragged away by fish. This is how the famous pirate William Kidd ended his days.
Suspension by feet
This wild torture has been widespread throughout the world since ancient times, and naturally it could not ignore the Coastal Brotherhood, first of all, with its cheapness and simplicity! This torture is based on some features of the human anatomy: the veins of the legs have valves that prevent the return flow of blood, in a word, the entire system of veins is adapted to allow blood to flow from the legs to the upper half of the body. The veins of the head, neck, arms and chest do not have such valves, since it goes without saying that the blood from them will flow out under the influence of their own weight. Thus, in a suspended man, all the blood slowly rushed to the head, where it stagnated and gradually caused cerebral edema, as a result of which a terrible headache developed, it darkened in the eyes, and blood began to ooze from the burst vessels from the nose.
Rack
This is undoubtedly the most common torture used throughout Europe during the XIV-XVIII centuries, it was also often used in legal proceedings, since it was considered quite unpretentious. The hands of the accused were tied behind their backs, and the other end of the rope was thrown over the winch ring, the victim was either left in this position, or forcefully and continuously pulled on the rope. To make the torture less soft, an additional weight was often tied to the notes of the victim, and then either the body was torn with forceps, or the tendons on the legs were cut.
Torture bench
The torture bench, or rather a modified "rack", was a table cut in half. The victim was placed on him so that the incision was under the center of his body, fixing his arms and legs. Then both halves were bent back and towards the center, stretching the body. This torture was practiced by the Spanish Inquisition in the New World, but captured as trophies, they became actively popular with such an eminent pirate as Sir Henry Morgan or another pirate captain of French origin, François Olone.
Bleed and sweat
Least known, yet documented torture used by pirates in the Caribbean. In 1718, George Shevlock subjected a captive captain to cruel torture: naked, he was driven through a line of pirates armed with needles for sewing sails. Then the bloody prisoner was put in a sugar barrel, teeming with cockroaches, covered with a blanket and left to "feed insects with their blood." In another documented case, such torture was actively used by the pirate captain Francis Spriggs.
