{"id":"01KG8AMJBAKXH9N3N2SA6Q9MMG","cid":"bafkreiclmayrt4dfk35kdbjnelhpwhw3vjt6r7bct3gfgkljus7ovv4guq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5463,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":5402,"text":"to inflict chastisement upon a sailor, and this, too, in the face of\r\nthe ordinance restricting the power of flogging solely to Captains and\r\nCourts Martial. Nor was it a thing unknown for a Lieutenant, in a\r\nsudden outburst of passion, perhaps inflamed by brandy, or smarting\r\nunder the sense of being disliked or hated by the seamen, to order a\r\nwhole watch of two hundred and fifty men, at dead of night, to undergo\r\nthe indignity of the “colt.”\r\n\r\nIt is believed that, even at the present day, there are instances of\r\nCommanders still violating the law, by delegating the power of the colt\r\nto subordinates. At all events, it is certain that, almost to a man,\r\nthe Lieutenants in the Navy bitterly rail against the officiousness of\r\nBancroft, in so materially abridging their usurped functions by\r\nsnatching the colt from their hands. At the time, they predicted that\r\nthis rash and most ill-judged interference of the Secretary would end\r\nin the breaking up of all discipline in the Navy. But it has not so\r\nproved. These officers _now_ predict that, if the “cat” be abolished,\r\nthe same unfulfilled prediction would be verified.\r\n\r\nConcerning the license with which many captains violate the express\r\nlaws laid down by Congress for the government of the Navy, a glaring\r\ninstance may be quoted. For upward of forty years there has been on the\r\nAmerican Statute-book a law prohibiting a captain from inflicting, on\r\nhis own authority, more than twelve lashes at one time. If more are to\r\nbe given, the sentence must be passed by a Court-martial. Yet, for\r\nnearly half a century, this law has been frequently, and with almost\r\nperfect impunity, set at naught: though of late, through the exertions\r\nof Bancroft and others, it has been much better observed than formerly;\r\nindeed, at the present day, it is generally respected. Still, while the\r\nNeversink was lying in a South American port, on the cruise now written\r\nof, the seamen belonging to another American frigate informed us that\r\ntheir captain sometimes inflicted, upon his own authority, eighteen and\r\ntwenty lashes. It is worth while to state that this frigate was vastly\r\nadmired by the shore ladies for her wonderfully neat appearance. One of\r\nher forecastle-men told me that he had used up three jack-knives\r\n(charged to him on the books of the purser) in scraping the\r\nbelaying-pins and the combings of the hatchways.\r\n\r\nIt is singular that while the Lieutenants of the watch in American\r\nmen-of-war so long usurped the power of inflicting corporal punishment\r\nwith the _colt_, few or no similar abuses were known in the English\r\nNavy. And though the captain of an English armed ship is authorised to\r\ninflict, at his own discretion, _more_ than a dozen lashes (I think\r\nthree dozen), yet it is to be doubted whether, upon the whole, there is\r\nas much flogging at present in the English Navy as in the American. The\r\nchivalric Virginian, John Randolph of Roanoke, declared, in his place\r\nin Congress, that on board of the American man-of-war that carried him\r\nout Ambassador to Russia he had witnessed more flogging than had taken\r\nplace on his own plantation of five hundred African slaves in ten\r\nyears. Certain it is, from what I have personally seen, that the\r\nEnglish officers, as a general thing, seem to be less disliked by their\r\ncrews than the American officers by theirs. The reason probably is,\r\nthat many of them, from their station in life, have been more\r\naccustomed to social command; hence, quarter-deck authority sits more\r\nnaturally on them. A coarse, vulgar man, who happens to rise to high\r\nnaval rank by the exhibition of talents not incompatible with\r\nvulgarity, invariably proves a tyrant to his crew. It is a thing that\r\nAmerican men-of-war’s-men have often observed, that the Lieutenants\r\nfrom the Southern States, the descendants of the old Virginians, are\r\nmuch less severe, and much more gentle and gentlemanly in command, than\r\nthe Northern officers, as a class.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBP1VJJZR9SX9NMYNF8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJBAYRM4CV3BJ292NN5X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJBHT7SKCTP2DH72CN7E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.322Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:47.050Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}