Maritime Trivia

“Not enough room to swing a cat”

Sometimes folks will say “dead cat,” but the maritime origins of this saying have nothing to do with felines, deceased or not.

In the days of sail, and right up through the start of the age of steam, one of the methods for dealing with miscreants aboard ship was flogging. Some captains used it for nearly every offense; they were known as “flogging captains,” and obviously not popular with the men. Captain Bligh of HMS Bounty infamy was one of those. Most captains, however, reserved flogging for the worst offenses, say, striking an officer, as one example. There have been men flogged literally to death, usually for mutiny.

Why all this talk of flogging, Tom? What’s that got to do with kitties?

Here’s how: the flogging was carried out by the Bosun using a “cat o’nine tails,” a wooden baton wrapped in nine leather strips. The long strips covered the baton, and then hung down for a eighteen inches or so; hence the “nine tails.” Some captains had a small knot added to the bottom of each strip.

The Bosun “applied” the cat to the back of the offending sailor by whipping him. If it were knotted, it really tore up the skin. Even if unknotted, after a dozen, the skin began to give way. Knotted or not, each application of the cat raised welts on the victim’s back, usually taking a few days to heal.

Get to the saying, Tom!

Okay, here goes. Sailors would describe a small place, ashore or shipboard, as not having “enough room to swing a cat,” meaning not enough space for the Bosun to really rear back and give a good lashing. Flogging was administered in sets of a dozen. For mutiny, a man could be sentenced by a court martial to be “flogged round the fleet.” This meant that the convict would be literally taken to every ship in the fleet and given two or more dozen lashings aboard each. This usually ended in the death of the convicted mutineer.

Maritime Meals from the Age of Sail

I exchanged e-mails with a reader, Mr. Dennis Williams, about our common interest in the novels of Patrick O’Brian, especially his Aubrey/Maturin series. You probably know the movie Master and Commander. The film was based on a combination of a couple of the books in the 21-volume series. Wonderfully detailed and beautifully written stories!!

Well, us fans are somewhat, how shall we say it? Obsessive? No, that’s too strong. Maybe…..

Anyway, two fans of the series took a look at the cuisine served both aboard ship and ashore in the books. Mr. O’Brian liked food himself, it is said, and so he spent a little time describing what the sailors and officers were eating in each book. This mother and daughter team set about finding authentic period recipes for the vast majority of the dishes described, from ship’s biscuit, called hard tack, to “rats dredged in flour,” which is described as something the midshipmen’s berth aboard one of Jack Aubrey’s ships are eating, as rations have grown short.

As a fan myself, I went to their book signing aboard the San Diego Maritime Museum, many years ago. The book, by the way, is titled Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, by Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas.

During their talk, they discussed having made nearly every recipe of the dozens, and taste tested each using authentic ingredients, even the one made with rats. They used medical research mice, however. For the signing, they made syllabub, a wine drink made with raw whole milk. Because it’s supposed to be made directly from the cow, they simulated it using warmed mile, squirted from a frosting applicator bag, from atop a ten-foot ladder into a punch bowl filled with red wine. Tasty!

So, when I was stationed in Bahrain for half a year, I made Sea Pie, as well as Drowned Baby, and a few of the other meat pie and dessert recipes. Drowned Baby looks exactly what it sounds like, but it was quite good. So was the sea pie, which to a degree resembles a warm pork pie. Overall, I liked what I made. I did not attempt the rats dredged in flour recipe, of course! I did my best with syllabub, but wasn't able to duplicate what the authors of this brilliant tome did.

Bon Appetite!

The Adventures of Jonas Hawke

I’m well over halfway through the first draft of The Sea Hawkes, book two of the trilogy that follows Jonas through the American Revolution. Right now, he’s at sea (where else) in command of privateer Resolute, planning to….

You’ll have to read it to find out! But I will tell you he’s angry and determined to have his vengeance on the British for what happened at the end of In Harm’s Way. He’s taking the war to British soil….

I will finish the first draft by the middle of September, then sit on it for a few weeks. Mid-October, I’ll spend a couple of weeks revising and adding scene details that I know I missed in the first pass. Then on 1 November, it goes to the fabulous Laura Taylor, my friend and editor. We’ll spend several weeks going back and forth on her edits, I’ll accept nearly every suggestion she makes, and then it goes to Acorn for the rest of the publication process. Hopefully, we can release on 26 April 2026, in Danbury, Connecticut. Why there? Because it’ll be the 249th anniversary of the British Raid on Danbury, which features in the first chapters of TSH.

You’re all invited!