Someone refresh my tired memory please. What was the book by Herman Melville about lashing in the British Navy? Or do I have my context all a-kilter?

Maybe right around the corner a "verbal reprimand" will be seen as demeaning and not allowable.

Then a "mean glare" will go out the window.

God, I miss dueling.

sindbad

(my edit for not spelling "memory correctly--could be a sign )

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sindbad,

Was it Billy Budd? Lashings? Worse yet would be no shore liberty or cold brewskis. Beat me if you must, but give me a cold brew and a smoke afterwards.

Sindbad, are you thinking of Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast?

With holding the daily share of rum!

quote:

Originally posted by arctictraveler:
But no court would ever accept that an OS could hit a BM and live!

I'm your huckleberry.

I believe the book you were thinking about was Melville's White Jacket a very powerful work on flogging in the U.S. Navy. I TA'd for a course in military history at Purdue University and the prof had the students read the book and then write an essay on it. One of the ROTC students said it was better to flog a sailor than to put him in the brig. If you put him in the brig, you lost him for work details. If, however, you gave him some lashes, he could go back to work! Never forgot that reasoning. As I was grading the paper, I was able to make a few comments on his observation.

Dana also wrote a very good book on life as a merchant sailor, which also was not one of a pleasure cruise.

End of literary lecture and story.

That is the book I was thinking of Dennis, though obviously, my memory was a tad left of the channel.

Thank you for the course correction. I need to get a copy of that back in my library.

sindbad