I have always seen in old films and some story books that pirates used to attach a ball and chain to prisoners legs and then throw them overboard. If this is true, have divers ever found the skeletal remains of one of these people lying at the bottom of the ocean, with ball and chain still attached?
BTW… I am not some sicko psychopathic killer here… just curious!
If you get tossed overboard in the open ocean, I think you are very likely to end up as fish food.
Did you see any skeletal remains on the Titanic? Nope.
And that ship sank in April, 1912.
Blackbeard and the other merry crews saw their heydays in the 18th century.
Most sailors of that time were unable to swim, as it was thought to be tempting fate. A ball and chain would therefore have been unnecessary.
If you don’t believe me check out How Do Astronauts Scratch An Itch by David Feldman. Though his Imponderables series doesn’t compare to Unca Cecil, it is a handy resource. To briefly sum up_
1-Why tie em up and have em walk a plank? Why not just chuck em over the side?
2-There are no first hand accounts of any one witnessing a prisoner walking the plank
3-Pirates were in it for the money. Loot the ship. Ransom royalty or members of wealthy families. Leave the crew of a looted ship on the ship. There’s no point in killing them once you have their cargo. There are many first hand accounts from ships that were attacked by pirates.
4-Walking the plank was a literary invention after the age of piracy ended. As a myth with no basis in fact, Hollywood naturally embraced it. Remember the plank scene in Peter Pan?
Yaaaarrrrrr-harrr-harrr! Siver me timbers an’ walk me plank! Yarrrrrr!
>> Most sailors of that time were unable to swim, as it was thought to be tempting fate. A ball and chain would therefore have been unnecessary
You mean if you can swim and they toss you in the water in the middle of the Atlantic you can just swim home?
“You mean if you can swim and they toss you in the water in the middle of the Atlantic you can just swim home?”
No, it just means that you can grab onto the ship and let it tow you for a few hours, then when it gets late and the crew is asleep, you can climb aboard and stow yourself somewhere and hide out until it docks.
Why would you need to swim if you were hanging on to the ship? And what would you grab exactly? did ships have handles at the waterline for this purpose? And how would you climb back onboard? (my boat is 35’ LOA and the deck is probably about 3 0r 4’ above water. I do not think anyboady can haul themselves aboard if they fell in the water. Even with somebody’s help on deck it is quite difficult to get some one back on the boat.)
Anyway, if pirates wanted to kill you, they killed you. If they did not want to kill you, they put you ashore or put you on a boat. Throwing people overboard was probably very uncommon. If you were thrown overboard you were doomed; swimmer or not.
Doc is correct in his proclamation of myth.
Walking the plank has never been documented as a way of doing off prisoners or mutineers.
Most of the time, they would be killed outright and tossed overboard (which is why ships are often chased by sharks looking for easy meals at the time.) As for the mutineers or other rabel, the standard practice was mostly to make them examples for the others then kill them. Usually this involved whipping with a cat’o nine or “keel hauling” which involves tying the prisoner up by his hands and feet and dragging the foot rope on the other side of the deck. Then, by pulling on the rope, they would haul the person over the side and under the keel of the boat. Whoever did not drown would get sliced to ribbons on the barnacle encrusted hull. Basically, it was like getting pulled over a cheese grater. If you did not die, you probably would from the wounds. Of course, your blood in the water would bring about the pirates best friend for disposal, the shark. One swift kick in your sodden pants and you were fish food.
I could be wrong, but I thought keel hauling was only documented as being used by the Dutch, and then only on few occasions.
Yup. Keel Hauling, like plank walking is mostly a matter of myth.
One thing I saw in a historic documentary. There was some unusually cruel pirate who like to kill his victimes like this: He would make a cut in the unfortunate guy’s belly, pull out a gut and nail it to the mast. Then another pirate would chase the poor guy with a burning torch. General hilarity ensued as the guy tried to get away and his guts were all pulled out.
You can see by this standard throwing someone in the water to drown is just no fun.
Cecil Adams on keelhauling, with a bonus on drawing and quartering that got the attention of the boys at Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Dutch…pirates…Dutch…Spanish…I just got my info from my Time Life series.
There were dutch pirates too, though they had trouble sneaking up on people. What with the wooden clogs and all
<insert laugh track here>