Chapter 33

A FLOGGING.

If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it
with a sob and a sigh.

Among the many who were exceedingly diverted with the scene
between the Down Easter and the Lieutenant, none laughed more
heartily than John, Peter, Mark, and Antone--four sailors of the
starboard-watch. The same evening these four found themselves
prisoners in the "brig," with a sentry standing over them. They
were charged with violating a well-known law of the ship--having
been engaged in one of those tangled, general fights sometimes
occurring among sailors. They had nothing to anticipate but a
flogging, at the captain's pleasure.

Toward evening of the next day, they were startled by the dread
summons of the boatswain and his mates at the principal hatchway
--a summons that ever sends a shudder through every manly heart in
a frigate:

"_All hands witness punishment, ahoy!_"

The hoarseness of the cry, its unrelenting prolongation, its
being caught up at different points, and sent through the
lowermost depths of the ship; all this produces a most dismal
effect upon every heart not calloused by long habituation to it.

However much you may desire to absent yourself from the scene
that ensues, yet behold it you must; or, at least, stand near it
you must; for the regulations enjoin the attendance of the entire
ship's company, from the corpulent Captain himself to the
smallest boy who strikes the bell.

"_All hands witness punishment, ahoy!_"

To the sensitive seaman that summons sounds like a doom. He knows
that the same law which impels it--the same law by which the culprits
of the day must suffer; that by that very law he also is liable at any
time to be judged and condemned. And the inevitableness of his own
presence at the scene; the strong arm that drags him in view of the
scourge, and holds him there till all is over; forcing upon his loathing
eye and soul the sufferings and groans of men who have familiarly
consorted with him, eaten with him, battled out watches with him--men
of his own type and badge--all this conveys a terrible hint of the
omnipotent authority under which he lives. Indeed, to such a man the
naval summons to witness punishment carries a thrill, somewhat akin to
what we may impute to the quick and the dead, when they shall hear the
Last Trump, that is to bid them all arise in their ranks, and behold
the final penalties inflicted upon the sinners of our race.

But it must not be imagined that to all men-of-war's-men this summons
conveys such poignant emotions; but it is hard to decide whether one
should be glad or sad that this is not the case; whether it is grateful
to know that so much pain is