Woodcut illustrating keelhauling, from theTudor period (1485–1603)
Keelhauling (Dutchkielhalen;[1] "to drag along the keel") is a form of punishment and potential execution once meted out to sailors at sea. The sailor was tied to a line looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship'skeel, either from one side of the ship to the other, or the length of the ship (frombow tostern).[2]
There is limited evidence that keelhauling in this form was used bypirate ships, especially in theancient world. The earliest definitive mention of keelhauling is from the Byzantine Rhodian Maritime Code (Lex Rhodia), of c. 700 CE, which outlines punishment for piracy. However, there are images on c. 500 BCE Greek vases, as well as a mention in Herodotus'Histories, that either refer tostrappado — that is, hanging the victim over the water — or of a keelhauling proper.[3][4]
Several 17th-century English writers such asWilliam Monson[5] and Nathaniel Boteler[6] recorded the use of keelhauling on English naval ships. However, their references are vague and provide no date.[original research?] In 1880,George Shaw Lefevre was confronted in Parliament with a recent report from Italy of a keelhauling onHMSAlexandra, and denied that such an incident had taken place.[7]
Some historians believe keelhauling may have been introduced to theDutch Navy byWilliam of Orange.[8][9][10] On 11 October 1652, underJan 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 theVOC for nine days.[11][12] Perhaps the most graphic incident of it occurred in 1673 whenCornelis Evertsen the Youngest punished sailors who committed murder.[13] It was an official, though rare, punishment in the Dutch navy,[14][page needed] as shown in the paintingThe keelhauling of the ship's surgeon of Admiral Jan van Nes. This shows a large crowd gathered to watch the event, as though it was a "show" punishment intended to frighten other potential offenders, as wasflogging round the fleet.[citation needed]
A footnote in one source suggests that it may have evolved from the medieval punishment ofducking.[15]
The term still survives today, although usually in the sense of being severely rebuked.[16]
^Monsofueiwoco ididiei(Michael), William; Oppenheim (August 14, 1902)."The naval tracts of Sir William Monson". [London], Printed for the Navy Records Society – via Internet Archive.
^The Dutch navy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jaap R. Bruijn
^"'Ducking' at the mainyard 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)
