THE NAVAL CAT. 53 



"Then, 'One dozen, sir, please/ he reported, saluting the commander. 



" ( Continue the punishment/ was the calm reply. 



"A new man, and a new cat. Another dozen reported ; again the same reply. 

 Three dozen. The flesh, like burning steel, had changed from red to purple, and blue, 

 and white; and between the third and fourth dozen, the suffering wretch, pale enough 

 now, and in all probability sick, begged a comrade to give him a mouthful of water. 



" There was a tear in the eye of the hardy sailor who obeyed him, whispering as 

 he did so, ' Keep up, Bill ; it'll soon be over now/ 



" l Five, six/ the corporal slowly counted ; ' seven, eight/ It is the last dozen, and 

 how acute must be the torture ! ' Nine, ten/ The blood comes now fast enough, and 

 yes, gentle reader, I will spare your feelings. The man was cast loose at last, and put 

 on the sick-list; he had borne his punishment without a groan, and without moving 

 a muscle. A large pet monkey sat crunching nuts in the rigging, and grinning all the 

 time ; I have no doubt he enjoyed the spectacle immensely, for he was only an ape" 



Dr. Stables gives his opinion on the use of the cat in honest and outspoken terms. 

 He considers "corporal punishment, as applied to men, cowardly, cruel, and debasing to 

 human nature ; and as applied to boys, brutal, and sometimes ev&n. fiendish" 



The writer has statistics before him which prove that 456 cases of flogging boys 

 took place in 1875, and that only seven men were punished during that year. There 

 is every probability that the use of the naval cat will ere long be abolished, and important 

 as is good discipline on board ship, there are many leading authorities who believe that 

 it can be maintained without it. The captain of a vessel is its king, reigning in a little 

 world of his own, and separated for weeks or months from the possibility of reprimand. 

 If he is a tyrannical man, he can make his ship a floating hell for all on board. A 

 system of fines for small offences has been proposed, and the idea has this advantage, 

 that in case they prove on investigation to have been unjustly imposed, the money 

 can be returned. The disgrace of a flogging sticks to a boy or man, and, besides, as 

 .a punishment is infinitely too severe for most of the offences for which it is inflicted. 

 It would be a cruel punishment were the judge infallible, but with an erring human 

 being for an irresponsible judge, the matter is far worse. And that good seamen are 

 deterred from entering the Koyal Navy, knowing that the commission of a peccadillo 

 or two may bring down the cat on their unlucky shoulders, is a matter of fact. 



We shall meet the sailor on the sea many a time and again during the progress 

 of this work, and see how hardly he earns his scanty reward in the midst of the awful 

 dangers peculiar to the elements he dares. Shakespeare says that he is 



" A man whom both the waters and the wind, 

 In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball 

 For them to play on" 



that the men of all others who have made England what she is, have not altogether a 

 bed of roses even on a well-conducted vessel, whilst they may lose their lives at any 

 moment by shipwreck and sudden death. George Herbert says 



" Praise the sea, but keep on land." 



