The diary of Henry Teonge, chaplain on board H.M.'s ships Assistance, Bristol, and Royal Oak, 1675-1679 / transcribed from the original manuscript and edited with an introduction and notes by G.E. Manwaring.

Henry Teonge

Date:: [1927]

Credit: The diary of Henry Teonge, chaplain on board H.M.'s ships Assistance, Bristol, and Royal Oak, 1675-1679 / transcribed from the original manuscript and edited with an introduction and notes by G.E. Manwaring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$boarde, to ringe his knell and farewell with some gunns, the which are allwaies to be of an even nomber[S/oane MSS., 7 58.] For further information on the subject see the inftru&ions issued in 1663 “ For regulating the Ceremony of Honour in Salutes.” [Memoirs of English Naval Affairs, by James, Duke of York, pp. 81-2.] 20 The praftice of 4 striking ’ dates from a remote period, and the English claim to it was not abandoned until after Trafalgar. The rules or etiquette regarding the ceremony of ‘ striking ’ are thus described by Captain Nathaniel Butler, writing in 1634 : “ When any inferior shyp or fleete being to come upp, and passe within reache of the canon of some of the fleete more eminent in any respeft than itt selfe, that then all the fleet doe not only take in all their flaggs, but that every particular shyp besides belonging to that fleete as they come upp even with the Admirall of the other, by way of acknowledgment and submission, doe strike all their Top-sayles, upon the Bunk, that is, doe hale them doune, att the leaft halfe maft highe. This compliment is requirable from all shyps whatsoever not beinge of his Majefty’s owne.” \Sloane MSS., 758.] If a merchant-ship refused to strike until shot at, it was customary to make the Captain pay the value of the powder and shot expended. [Fulton, Sovereignty of the Sea, 206-7.] 21 Known as The Seven Sifters. 22 The syftem of naval punishment for minor offences appears at all times to have refted very much upon the discretion of the Commander. The moft usual modes of correction at sea during the greater part of the seventeenth century seem to have been the capstan, the bilboes, and ducking. The following account is taken from A Dialogicall Discourse concerninge Marine Affairs, 1634, by Captain Nathaniell Butler. [B.M. Sloane MSS., 758.] The capftan : “ A capftans barre beinge thruft through the hole of the burrell, the offenders armes are extended to full the length, and soe made fafte unto the barre croftwise; haveing sometimes a basket of bulletts, or some other the like weight, hanginge his neck upon, in which pofture he continues untill hee be made either to confesse some plotte or cryme whereof hee is pregnantly suspefted, or that hee have received suche condigne sufferinge as hee is suffered to undergoe by the ceinsure of the Captaine. The punishment by the bilboes is when a delinquent is putt in yrons, or in a kind of ftocks used for that pur¬ pose, the which are more or less heavy and pinchinge as the qualitie of the offence is proved againft the delinquent.—The ducking att the maine yarde arme is, when a malefaftor by havinge a rope faftened under his armes and about his middle, and under his breech, is thus hoysed up to the end of the yarde ; from whence hee is againe violentlie$