The Cat o'nine tails (1)

The naval version

Scourges, multi-tailed whips, had been used as a punishment instrument throughout all man’s history. Egyptians, Romans, Hebrews, everybody had them. But the most famous is the “cat o'nine tails”, “cat o'nine” o just “the cat”.

 

Several multi-tailed whips share this name, but the original one is the one used in the world’s Navies, in use from about the year 1600, and that had not just many, but exactly nine thongs.

 

And why nine? For understanding the reason, we will need a little knowledge on ropes. A rope is made of long fibers, vegetable then, mostly man-made now.

 

Those fibers are twisted into "yarns". Three of these yarns are made fast at one point, and then individually twisted, all in the same direction and at the same time, at the other point (Don’t try to do it by hand, unless you have at least three hands). As the tension of the twisting increases, the three yarns will coil one around the other on the opposite direction, forming the rope.

 

The usual way for making thicker rope is beginning the same twisting procedure with three thinner ropes.

 

Now to the cat. For making it, the sailors just undid the rope making procedure. Take a yard of rope of the adequate thickness, unravel half of the length, getting three tails, and then uncurl each of the tails, getting the infamous nine.

 

⁽¹⁾

 

Being rope handy on board, and being the punishment a bloody one, the whips were disposed off after use, so as far as I know, there is no one preserved.

 

Sometimes, as additional punishment, the culprit himself was made to make the cat that would be used on his bare back.

 

For the usual faults, fighting, drinking, disobeying an order or not working hard enough, the points were not knotted, but only whipped, as shown, to prevent unraveling. 

 

 

 

Only for serious crimes, like theft, the points were knotted, usually with three knots, separated by about two inches, on each tail. This is what was called a “thieve’s cat”.

 

The whipped ends left narrow welts, and would cut the skin. The knots left bruises, crushing and tearing the skin.

 

A more modern version, from the 1820s was described as being

“a round wooden baton 18 inches long, 1½ inches wide, and clad in a light green baize/woolen cloth. Each end has ¼ inch strips of the green cloth stitched around as a sort of decoration. There are, of course, the nine tails of a stout cord (not leather) each 24 inches long. The tails are  knotted 3 times each at approximately ½ to 2 inches intervals, and the tips are bound with thread to prevent fraying (the "thieves cat" apparently had more knots). The first knot is 2 inches from the end of each strand.”

 

It still has nine tails, but it is just because nine was the traditional number, and as far as I can tell, he was actually looking at a thieves cat. The thieves cat didn’t have more knots, but normal cats had none.

 

The following picture shows a cat like the one described above, but with whipped points.

 

 

 

In the British Navy, the captains were not allowed to give a sailor more than a dozen lashes without a martial court order, but this regulation was not usually respected.

 

Actually, the number of lashes awarded depended only on the Captain’s discretion, and sometimes until seven dozen were given.

 

There was also a punishment known as "flogging around the fleet", in which the punished was carried in a boat to the front of each ship of the fleet, receiving ten lashes from the "master-at-arms" of that ship. As the punished could receive hundreds of lashes, it was actually a death sentence.

 

Even when there were no regulations as how many lashes each crime deserved, a good approximation is that sleeping on duty was awarded with 6 lashes, drunkenness with 12 (that could be more for a recidivist ), the same for using wet clothes, filthiness, 18, and the worst crime punished by the cat, theft, 36 lashes.

 

The whipping was a formal ceremony, with all the crew on deck, and the officers in full uniform. The culprit with his back naked was tied to a grating turned upright, the Master-at-Arms gave the order, and the Boatswain Mate lashed the back of the sailor with the cat, while the master at arms counted the lashes, until the count was complete, and the Captain ordered “Stop. Take him down”. The lashes were delivered by the dozen, with a different Boatswain Mate for each batch.

 

 

Regarding the effect of the cat in the punished, the rope’s cat is heavier than the leather one, and when applied by a strong Boatswain Mate, a lash can knock a man down and cut his breath, and a full sentence would tear the back’s skin, leaving the flesh raw, and scarring the back for life.

 

After two dozen, according to an eyewitness "the lacerated back looks inhuman; it resembles roasted meat burnt nearly black before a scorching fire."

 

The Cat was outlawed in the US Navy in 1850. In the British Navy it was suspended in 1879, but it remained in the list of Naval Punishments until 1948.

 

⁽¹⁾ This cat is a good modern reproduction made by Adam and Gillian's Sensual Whips and Toys (back)

 

Published: 02/10/03