HMS Victory

[j.sabourn]

#9.. John when you talk about sail , brings back memories of HMS Reclaim which although Think was built in the late 1950s also had a sail which was said gave her an extra knot weather permitting. Although well out of Service now , she was at one time the navies diving support vessel when I worked for the. MOD. From her in previous years certain records were made , and as I believe in a previous post about saturation diving rather think the record was barely over 600. Feet and may of been made from this vessel which all things considered was well done when comparing the equipment used then and now. Don’t think that record has been broken , as said today there is little point in endangering lives when not necessary. But that sail she had always stuck in my mind as being out of place, not so, in today’s thinking we may soon be going back to. Cheers JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

Many years back as a Winger I read a book about punishment in the Royal Navy.
Real nice lot they were. One of the favorites was flogging around the fleet.

The convicted seaman was but into a long boat and tied over a barrel, got him over a barrel no doubt comes from this.
The long boat was then rowed around the fleet and the seaman receiving a number of lashes, minimum five, as the long boat stopped at each ship.
With maybe as many as 25 ships in port t was along lashing.

[j.sabourn]

Maybe along with the expression of over the barrel , having lashings of fun had its source. JS

[Keith at Tregenna]

Under naval regulations, the captain of a British warship up to 1806 could order a seaman, manne, or petty officer guilty of misconduct to be punished summarily with up to twelve lashes from a cat of nine tails, administered at the gangway in the presence of the assembled crew.

Greater punishments were generally administered following a formal court martial, with Royal Navy records reflecting some standard penalties of two hundred lashes for desertion, three hundred for mutiny, and up to five hundred for theft.

After the flogging was completed, the sailor's lacerated back was frequently rinsed with brine or seawater, which was thought to serve as a crude antiseptic (although it is now known that seawater contains significant microbial components). Although the purpose was to control infection, it caused the sailor to endure additional pain, and gave rise to the expression "rubbing salt into his wounds", which came to mean vindictively or gratuitously increasing a punishment or injury already imposed.

[Captain Kong]

"A taste of the Lash never hurt anyone"
Bligh

[Ivan Cloherty]

"A taste of the Lash never hurt anyone"
Bligh

There used to be shops in Soho, which offered such a service! ::

[j.sabourn]

#14. In our lifetime and up unto quite recently I have been told the death penalty was still in the statute books for mutiny. Maybe it was overlooked or maybe not who knows ? JS.

[Captain Kong]

DEATH PENALTY WAS ABOLISHED IN 1969 , LAST EXECUTION WAS IN 1964
LAST woman hanged was Ruth Ellis in 1955
FOR TREASON IT WAS ABOLISHED IN1998, LAST ONE FOR THAT, LORD HAW HAW IN 1946


BRING IT BACK

[john walker]

John #7 I Have had the pleasure twice in the last 12 years with a few other ex seamen who live here in London to be invited for lunch and drinks in the petty officers mess ,also a personal tour around H.M.S. Victory. The men that I met had all served between 16 and 24 years and found that a draft/deployment to the ship was perfect for them as most were married with children etc. They got home regularly as only 2 petty officers had to sleep onboard each night (Plus an officer and other ratings) They felt that they had done more than enough sea time and felt at the time that a sea draft was best left to others. Beside all those tourists wandering around Victory is very much a working ship as it is the Flag ship of the First Sea Lord they still hold such things as court martials on Her.

[John F Collier]

Did you visit the submarine museum believe in Gosport. If so will have seen the Hollande 1 . Another small episode in my life . When we go back and remember the accomplishments in our past it sometimes makes up for some of the failures . Cheers JS.

No I haven't been to the Submarine Museum at Gosport John, but have seen the cold war era O class Submarine HMS Ocelot at Chatham Historic Dockyard.
I did go onboard Hms Thorough at Sydney in 1957 when she was on a world tour, she was a T class WWII Submarine, made me realise how brave those
blocks were during the war. In January 1950 another T class sub, HMS Truculent had left Chatham Dockyard after a refit, apart from her crew she had dockyard workers aboard, she was returning to her base just a few miles away at Sheerness, sailing on the surface Truculent entered the Thames Estuary, shortly afterwards she was struck by a Swedish tanker, some survivors were picked op and a few made it to the mudflats where they froze to death, there was around 65 deaths, the Truculent was held to blame. I've only got a vague memory of this, but in the 1950s the NZSCo's MV Rakaia left
New York and a lost her propeller a few days out, the crew rigged a sail to get back to NY, apologise if I'm wrong, cheers