Hello Sean. No one has responded to your question of 27 August---so I'd suggest you try over in the CG or Navy section. {The USMC also has Captains Mast, but thankfully I never was sent- }
Hey-word of advice from a prior service guy and Dad of an AF SSG---Whatever got you to the Captains mast...Quit doing it, and quit hanging around the guys who help you get in trouble---Okay? Out.
You'll have to use a bit of imagination, but this is one of those old sea traditions that goes back at least to the 1500s. Thick wool Green baize cloth was used as a table covering, and in Captains quarters a deck covering. Royal Navy Regulations come down from the Articles of War and the Laws of Oleron. Below is a little excerpt from an old Royal Navy pamphlet concerning old traditions and customs.
THE ARTICLES OF WAR and the LAWS OF OLERON
The Laws of Oleron were the laws which governed the seafaring nations of the West, and were derived from the code formulated in the Republic of Rhodes and received and confirmed by the Romans and neighbouring states bordering on the Mediterranean, in the same manner as was the code promulgated at Wisby (a small Swedish town in the island of Gothland) received and conformed to by the nations bordering on the Baltic and to the north of the Rhine.
From the Laws of Oleron
"If contention arose between the crew and the master, before turning any or all of them out of the ship it was enjoined that the Master should remove the tablecloth three times as a warning. As there was only one cooked meal per diem, this was apparently equivalent to three days’ notice. I think we can safely conclude that it was from this custom that the expression arose which is still in use of Losing the Cloth."
"In former times the Officers of H.M. Yachts were messed by the Board of the Green Cloth, which is actually the Lord Steward’s Department. "
The Board of the Green Cloth managed the affairs of the household of the English crown. It got its name from the green baize cloth covering on the table where it business was conducted.
The connection then is from an old custom for disciplining or firing a crew or crewmen by removing the tablecloth. The tablecloth in use by the officers wardroom would be the green cloth. It all could just be carried forth to the present CG practice, when crew punishment is meted out.
Be interesting to hear any other possible connections.
} 
