Posted on Sep 28, 2021
Brief History of Punishment by Flogging in the US Navy
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On September 28, 1850, the United States Navy abolishes flogging as a form of punishment. An excerpt from the article:
"Warnings against the excessive use of flogging were written as early as 1797 by Captain Thomas Truxtun and in 1808 by Surgeon Edward Cutbush. A proposal to abolish flogging was first introduced in Congress in 1820 by Representative Samuel Foot, but it was unsuccessful. Congressman Foot was the father of Andrew Hull Foote, who was later an admiral in the Civil War. In 1831 Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury issued an order that said until Congress changed the existing laws governing punishment in the Navy, whenever such laws allowed a discretion in the use of punishments, he recommended that in the case of seamen, commanding officers should first resort to fines and badges of disgrace, and other forms of mild corrections rather than using "the humiliating practice of whipping. "Later, Secretary of the Navy James K. Paulding issued an order to commanding officers that flogging was to be administered in accordance with the law and always in the presence of the captain."
"Warnings against the excessive use of flogging were written as early as 1797 by Captain Thomas Truxtun and in 1808 by Surgeon Edward Cutbush. A proposal to abolish flogging was first introduced in Congress in 1820 by Representative Samuel Foot, but it was unsuccessful. Congressman Foot was the father of Andrew Hull Foote, who was later an admiral in the Civil War. In 1831 Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury issued an order that said until Congress changed the existing laws governing punishment in the Navy, whenever such laws allowed a discretion in the use of punishments, he recommended that in the case of seamen, commanding officers should first resort to fines and badges of disgrace, and other forms of mild corrections rather than using "the humiliating practice of whipping. "Later, Secretary of the Navy James K. Paulding issued an order to commanding officers that flogging was to be administered in accordance with the law and always in the presence of the captain."
Brief History of Punishment by Flogging in the US Navy
Posted from history.navy.mil
Sailors
Punishment
Military History
American History
Posted 3 y ago
Responses: 3
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SGT (Join to see)
MCPO Roger Collins Didn't they also scrap the bread and water punishment? Now that is punishment for those chow hounds that volunteered to eat! Lol!
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CWO4 Terrence Clark
SGT (Join to see)
MCPO Roger Collins
We did away with "piss n punk" in 2019. Many articles out there calling it a "draconian " punishment. Only applied to E-3s and below. To my knowledge, sailors considered it a joke, and better than cleaning bilges or extra duty as a brig rat. In 1967, as a PMFA (E-2) standing fwd cable watch aboard USS Piedmont (AD-17) swung between bouy 51 & 53, in Subic Bay, I passed the time fishing. Apparently not being a fisherman, the old man awarded me two weeks pay loss, two weeks extra duty and three days piss n punk. After the extra duty, I needed the rest anyway, and there was no limit to the bread and water you could consume. Since most mess cooks were E-2 & 3 also, we/they always ensured a plentiful supply of warm, fresh baked breads.
PFC David Foster PO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln SGT (Join to see)
MCPO Roger Collins
We did away with "piss n punk" in 2019. Many articles out there calling it a "draconian " punishment. Only applied to E-3s and below. To my knowledge, sailors considered it a joke, and better than cleaning bilges or extra duty as a brig rat. In 1967, as a PMFA (E-2) standing fwd cable watch aboard USS Piedmont (AD-17) swung between bouy 51 & 53, in Subic Bay, I passed the time fishing. Apparently not being a fisherman, the old man awarded me two weeks pay loss, two weeks extra duty and three days piss n punk. After the extra duty, I needed the rest anyway, and there was no limit to the bread and water you could consume. Since most mess cooks were E-2 & 3 also, we/they always ensured a plentiful supply of warm, fresh baked breads.
PFC David Foster PO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln SGT (Join to see)
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MCPO Roger Collins
CWO4 Terrence Clark Was that a local shipboard thing. I don’t remember anything in the UCMJ conditional on pay grade. I was always creative with disciplinary action. Two examples, smokers were on butt detail and those that stood with their feet on the outer walls had to scrub them.
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CWO4 Terrence Clark
MCPO Roger Collins
I don't either. And I slogged through the course. PMC Elmer Cochrane told me if I did not get my shit together and make 3rd my life was going to be all piss n punk.
All my enlisted sea time was on tenders. ADs & ASs. They all had brigs. PO1 & 2 stood watches. MarDet sometimes. I did myself as PO2. I only saw P&P on the ADs. But often DDs would put their sailors in our brigs. Twice on Samuel Gompers AD-37, I recall DDs placing sailors in our brig while we were in Subic, then leaving. Out of the brig, they became TAD to us completing their extra duty. One went back when his tin can came alongside us at the deepwater pier in DaNang. The other when his ship came alongside us in Kaohsiung. Assigned the Piedmont again homeported in Naples, Italy, we had a couple of P&Ps. But then I crossdecked to Canopus and Simon Lake out of Rota, Spain. Never saw our brigs used. There was a red line brig on base run by MarDet. In all the P&Ps I was aware of, it was only non-rates.
An aside: as Chief, I layed one of my PO2s before the mast. As W-2, I layed one of my PO1s before the mast. I've always felt those to be personal failures.
I don't either. And I slogged through the course. PMC Elmer Cochrane told me if I did not get my shit together and make 3rd my life was going to be all piss n punk.
All my enlisted sea time was on tenders. ADs & ASs. They all had brigs. PO1 & 2 stood watches. MarDet sometimes. I did myself as PO2. I only saw P&P on the ADs. But often DDs would put their sailors in our brigs. Twice on Samuel Gompers AD-37, I recall DDs placing sailors in our brig while we were in Subic, then leaving. Out of the brig, they became TAD to us completing their extra duty. One went back when his tin can came alongside us at the deepwater pier in DaNang. The other when his ship came alongside us in Kaohsiung. Assigned the Piedmont again homeported in Naples, Italy, we had a couple of P&Ps. But then I crossdecked to Canopus and Simon Lake out of Rota, Spain. Never saw our brigs used. There was a red line brig on base run by MarDet. In all the P&Ps I was aware of, it was only non-rates.
An aside: as Chief, I layed one of my PO2s before the mast. As W-2, I layed one of my PO1s before the mast. I've always felt those to be personal failures.
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"Warnings against the excessive use of flogging were written as early as 1797 by Captain Thomas Truxtun and in 1808 by Surgeon Edward Cutbush. A proposal to abolish flogging was first introduced in Congress in 1820 by Representative Samuel Foot, but it was unsuccessful. Congressman Foot was the father of Andrew Hull Foote, who was later an admiral in the Civil War. In 1831 Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury issued an order that said until Congress changed the existing laws governing punishment in the Navy, whenever such laws allowed a discretion in the use of punishments, he recommended that in the case of seamen, commanding officers should first resort to fines and badges of disgrace, and other forms of mild corrections rather than using "the humiliating practice of whipping. "Later, Secretary of the Navy James K. Paulding issued an order to commanding officers that flogging was to be administered in accordance with the law and always in the presence of the captain."
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A fine end to a crule punishment. I noticed that it didn't the treatment of the floggee.
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PO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln
It should have read... I noticed that it didn't mention the post flogging treatment of the floggee.
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