Keelhauling

Keelhauling (Dutch kielhalen; "to drag along the keel") is a form of punishment and potential execution once meted out to sailors at sea. First, a line was looped around the keel from one side of the ship (side A) to the other (side B), with one end tied to the victim and the other end held by sailors. Next, the victim was thrown overboard on side A. As sailors pulled from side B, the victim was dragged, scraped, and mangled against the ship's keel, passing underneath the ship. Finally, the pull of the sailors ended up hoisting the body back up on deck, on side B. In some cases, instead of one side to the other, the subject was dragged the full length of the ship (from bow to stern).

History

There is limited evidence that keelhauling in this form was used by pirate ships, especially in the ancient world. The earliest definitive mention of keelhauling is from the Byzantine Rhodian Maritime Code (Lex Rhodia), of , which outlines punishment for piracy. However, there are images on c. 500 BC Greek vases, as well as a mention in Herodotus' Histories, that either refer to strappado — that is, hanging the victim over the water — or of a keelhauling proper. H. A. Ormerod, Piracy in the Ancient World (New York: Dorset Press, 1987), 54–56.C.E. Ioannidou, "The black version of water and underwater activity: drowning, Torture, and executions below The sea in ancient greece during The archaic and classical period" A footnote in one source suggests that it may have evolved from the medieval punishment of ducking.Ducking' at the main yard arm is, when a malefactor by having a rope fastened under his arms and about his middle, and under his breech, is thus hois[t]ed up to the end of the yard; from whence he is again violently let fall into the sea, sometimes twice, sometimes three several times one after another; and if the offence be very foul, he is also drawn under the very keel of the ship...'". Dialogical Discourse of Marine Affairs, Nathaniel Boteler (1685)

Several 17th-century English writers such as William Monson and Nathaniel BotelerBoteler’s Dialogues, ed. Perrin 11-25 recorded the use of keelhauling on English naval ships. However, their references are vague and provide no date. In 1880, George Shaw Lefevre was confronted in Parliament with a recent report from Italy of a keelhauling on HMS Alexandra, and denied that such an incident had taken place."NAVY—ALLEGED INSTANCE OF "KEEL-HAULING. HC Deb 04 September 1880 CE vol 256 c1275 api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard, accessed 8 August 2018.

Some historians believe keelhauling may have been introduced to the Dutch States Navy by William of Orange. On 11 October 1652, under Jan van Riebeeck's command, Jan Blank, a sailor, was keelhauled, whipped a total of 150 lashes, and then enslaved for 2 years as punishment for deserting the Dutch East India Company for nine days. Perhaps the most graphic incident of it occurred in 1673 when Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest punished sailors who committed murder. It was an official, though rare, punishment in the Dutch States Navy.The Dutch navy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jaap R. Bruijn

Use of the term persists in a largely metaphorical sense today, typically to describe a severe punishment or rebuke.

See also Dragging death Running the gauntlet Walking the plank Operation Keelhaul

Keelhauling

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