Cat o' nine tails

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This article is about the implement of punishment. For the Cat O' Nine Tails plant, see Typha latifolia.

For the film, see The Cat o' Nine Tails.

A leather cat o' nine tails pictured with a U.S. dollar bill for size comparison. A U.S. dollar bill is about 6 inches (about 15 cm) long.

The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to 'the cat', is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, notably in the Royal Navy and Army of the United Kingdom, and also as a judicial punishment in Britain and some other countries.

[edit] Terminology

The word is recorded in English since 1695. It was probably so called in reference to its "claws", which inflict parallel wounds. The design is much older. [Edit: A standard whip normally has one "tail", and cat-o' nine tails has nine "tails", hence the name.]

There are equivalent terms in many languages, usually strictly translating, and also some analogous terms referring to a similar instrument's number of tails (cord or leather), such as the Dutch zevenstaart ('seven tail[s]').

[edit] Description

The "Cat" is made up of nine knotted thongs of cotton cord, about 2½ feet or 76 cm long, designed to lacerate the skin and cause intense pain.

It traditionally has nine thongs as a result of the manner in which rope is plaited. Thinner rope is made from three strands of yarn plaited together, and thicker rope from three strands of thinner rope plaited together. To make a cat o' nine tails, a rope is unraveled into three small ropes, and each of those next unraveled, again in three.

[edit] Variations

Variations exist, either named cat (of x tails) or not, such as the whip used on adult Egyptian prisoners which had a cord on a cudgel branching into seven tails, each with six knots, used only on adult men, with boys being subject to caning, until Egypt banned the use of the device in 2001.^[1]

Sometimes the term "cat" is used incorrectly to describe various other punitive flogging devices with multiple tails in any number, even one made from 80 twigs (so rather a limp birch) to flog a drunk or other offender instead of 80 lashes normally applicable under shariah law. The closed Cat, one without tails was called a Starter.

[edit] Historical punishments

[edit] Naval types and use

The naval "cat", also known as the captain's daughter (since, in principle, it was only used under his authority), weighed about 13 ounces (370 grams) and was composed of a baton (handle) and nine cords.

Contrary to popular belief, the standard cat was not the most feared implement; being made of rope, it was rather less painful than a leather whip or a wooden birch-rod,^{[citation needed]} while the modes of application (number and intensity of lashes, anatomical target, baring) of any implement can be more important than its intrinsic potential.

[edit] Naval punishments

All formal punishments — ordered by captain or court martial — were given ceremonially on deck, the crew being summoned to ‘witness punishment’ (though usually adults and boys separated, which was apparently not strictly observed in practice) and drama enhanced by drum roll and a whole routine, including pauses, untangling of the tails, a drink of water and so on, which it is believed were intended more for the observing crew than for the actual participants. Informal 'daily' punishments, usually without assembly, including canings, were often left unrecorded.

The thieves' cat, to inflict punishment for theft, which was considered a particularly offensive crime aboard ship, had each of its thongs knotted three times to cause additional pain.

[edit] Napoleonic wars period

During the period of the Napoleonic wars, the naval cat's handle was made of rope about two feet (60 cm) long and about an inch (25 mm) in diameter, and was traditionally covered with red baize cloth. The "tails" were made of cord about a quarter inch (6 mm) in diameter and typically two feet long.

A new cat was made for each flogging by a bosun's mate and kept in a red baize bag until use. In Trafalgar time, it was made by the condemned sailor during 24 hours in leg irons; the nine strongest falls were kept, and extra lashes were administered if any of the selected falls were found to be sub-standard. If several dozen lashes were awarded, each could be administered by a fresh bosun's mate — a left-handed one could be included to assure extra painful crisscrossing of the wounds. One dozen was usually awarded as a highly sensitizing 'prelude' to running the gauntlet.

In some cases a cat with a wooden handle was used, and steel balls or barbs of wire were added to the tips of the thongs to maximize the potential flogging injury.

[edit] Boys' punishment

For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys, a lighter model was made, the reduced cat, also known as boy's cat, boy's pussy or just pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord.

If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would suffer the punishment of the 'adult' cat.

While adult sailors received their lashes on the back, they were administered to boys on the bare posterior, usually while "kissing the gunner's daughter" (bending over a gun barrel), just as boys' lighter 'daily' chastisement was usually over their (often naked) rear-end (mainly with a cane - this could be applied to the hand, but captains generally refused such impractical disablement - or a rope's end). Bare-bottom discipline was a tradition of the English upper and middle classes, who frequented public schools,^[2] so midshipmen (trainee officers, usually from 'good families', getting a cheaper equivalent education by enlisting) were not spared, at best sometimes allowed to receive their lashes inside a cabin. Still, it is reported that the 'infantile' embarrassment of bare-bottom punishment was believed essential for optimal deterrence; cocky miscreants might brave the pain of the adult cat in the macho spirit of 'taking it like a man' or even as a 'badge of honour'.

On board training ships, where most of the crew were boys, the cat was never introduced, but their bare bottoms risked, as in other naval establishments on land, the sting of the birch, another favourite in public schools.

[edit] Flogging round the fleet

"The severest form of flogging was a flogging round the fleet. The number of lashes was divided by the number of ships in port and the offender was rowed between ships for each ship's company to witness the punishment."^[3] Penalties of hundreds of lashes were imposed for the gravest offences, including sedition and mutiny. The prisoner was rowed 'round the fleet in an open boat and received a number of his lashes at each ship in turn, for as long as the surgeon allowed. Sentences often took months or years to complete, depending on how much a man was expected to bear at a time. Normally 250-500 lashes was when a man taking this punishment would kill him, as infections would spread."^[4] After the flogging was completed, the sailor's lacerated back was frequently rinsed with brine or seawater, which served as a crude antiseptic. Although the purpose was to control infection, it caused the sailor to endure additional pain, and gave rise to the expression, "rubbing salt into his wounds," which came to mean vindictively or gratuitously increasing a punishment or injury already imposed.

[edit] British Army

The British Army had a similar multiple whip, though much lighter in construction, made of a drumstick with attached strings. The flogger was usually a drummer rather than a strong bosun's mate. Flogging with the cat o' nine tails fell into disuse around 1870.

Naturally, it was also used elsewhere in the Commonwealth, such as Canada (a dominion in 1867) until 1881. An 1812 drawing^[5] shows a drummer apparently lashing the buttocks of a naked soldier who is tied with spread legs on an A-frame made from sergeants' half pikes. In many places, soldiers were generally flogged stripped to the waist.

[edit] Prison usage

The cat-o'-nine-tails was also notoriously used on adult convicts in prisons; a 1951 memorandum^[6] (possibly confirming earlier practice) ordered all UK male prisons to use only cats o' nine tails (and birches) from a national stock at Wandsworth prison, where they were to be 'thoroughly' tested before being supplied in triplicate to a prison whenever a procedure was pending for use as prison discipline.

[edit] Penal colonies in Australia

Especially harsh floggings were given with it in secondary penal colonies of early colonial Australia, particularly at such places as Norfolk Island (apparently this has 9 leather thongs, each with a lead weight, meant as the ultimate deterrent for hardened life-convicts), Port Arthur and Moreton Bay (now Brisbane).

[edit] Modern uses and types

Main article: Judicial corporal punishment

Judicial corporal punishment was removed from the statute book in Great Britain in 1948. The cat was still being used in Australia in 1957 and is still in use in a few Commonwealth countries, although the cane is used instead in rather more countries.

Judicial corporal punishment has been abolished or declared unconstitutional since 1997 in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda (in 2001) and Fiji (in 2002, but a caning was given to four rapists in 1998).

However, former colonies in the Caribbean have recently begun to reinstate flogging of the bare back. Antigua and Barbuda reinstated flogging in 1990, followed by the Bahamas in 1991 but subsequently banned by laws according to Bahamas Government website Bahamas Penal Code and Barbados in 1993 (only to be formally declared inhumane and consequently unconstitutional by the Barbados Supreme Court). Jamaica in 1994 (flogging was banned again by the Jamaican Court of Appeal in 1998 [1]).

Trinidad & Tobago never banned the "Cat" and birching. The use of both are regulated under the Corporal Punishment (Offenders over Sixteen) Act 1953. Under this Act, use of the "Cat" was limited to male offenders over the age of 16. The age limit — repeatedly disregarded^{[citation needed]} — was raised in 2000 to 18.

Trinidad outlawed the corporal punishment of minors (both by courts and in schools) in 2001.

The Government of Trinidad & Tobago has been accused of torture and "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of prisoners, and in 2005 was ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to pay US $50,000 for "moral damages" to a prisoner who had received 15 strokes of the "Cat" plus expenses for his medical and psychological care; it is unclear whether the Court's decisions were met. Trinidad & Tobago has since denounced the American Convention on Human Rights and no longer recognises the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.^[7]

In recent years the term cat o' nine tails is used imprecisely to describe almost any kind of multi-tailed whip, particularly those found in modern BDSM. These whips are usually made of soft leather, which reduces the potential for injury, and used in a way so as to not inflict terrible pain and, especially, wounds in a way that the voluntary participants find acceptable. Miniature versions are also known as ball whip because it is used for male genitorture.

[edit] Popular culture

[edit] Expressions

The still-popular sailor's song What do you do with a Drunken Sailor? has a verse that goes "Give him a taste of the captain's daughter" or "Throw him in bed with the captain's daughter". While this doesn't sound like a dire fate for the tipsy seaman, the term "captain's daughter" referred in naval jargon to the cat o' nine tails or a similar whip.
The expression "to kiss the gunner's daughter" equally referred to a boy bending over a field gun, usually tied down, the trousers lowered, exposing the buttocks for a sound public spanking (often with a cane or birch), while adult sailors got their back striped in upright position.
The common phrase, "not enough room to swing a cat," is often claimed to refer to a cat o' nine tails, yet there are examples of usage predating the known use of the cat o' nine tails (i.e. before 1695) and the phrase more likely refers to the practice of putting a live cat in a leather bottle and setting it swinging as a target for marksmen. For example, Shakespeare, in Much Ado About Nothing, writes: "Hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me." This has been the subject of correspondence in The Times in January 2007.^{[citation needed]}
The phrase "letting the cat out of the bag" in the sense of revealing a secret may derive from the cat o' nine tails being kept in a red baize bag and being taken out when punishment is to be inflicted. For a sailor being punished for the first time, the secret of what the 'cat' is thereby revealed. There are other possible explanations for this particular phrase (see Pig in a poke).

[edit] Fiction, songs and games

The band L7 has a song named "Cat o' Nine Tails" on their self-titled debut album.
The song "This I Know" by Rehab contains "Cat of Nine Tails" within its lyrics.
The calypso "Old Time Cat o’ Nine" was first recorded by Lord Invader in 1945. He recorded an updated version: "Cat o' Nine Tails" in New York in March, 1959.
The movie The Cat o' Nine Tails, directed by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento.
In the Known Space series of science-fiction books, the alien race called Outsiders are always described as resembling a "cat o' nine tails with a fattened handle."
In the video-game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released 1995, there is an enemy character called Cat o' 9 Tails, which is literally a cat with nine tails. This enemy made a comeback in the Game Boy Advance port of the game. Also in this game, the character Klubba makes a reference to the cat o' nine tails, saying that he's going to whip the main characters with it "unless they pay the toll."
In the MMORPG "Ragnarok Online" there exists an enemy Boss monster called the Cat o' Nine Tails.
In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing there exist a weapon called Tail o' nine cats.
In the Playstation game Star Ocean 2, character Ernest can equip a whip called "The Cat o' Nine Tails," which hits three times every attack.
The children's pirate rock band Captain Bogg and Salty wrote a song called "Cat O' Nine Tails" for their album Bedtime Stories for Pirates.
The 2006 movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, has the character Will Turner whipped by the Cat and the character Davy Jones, captain of the ghost ship The Flying Dutchman, also saying "The cat's out of the bag" implying that once it has been removed from its stowage it must now be used on someone.
In the Bible, Jesus was beaten with a Cat O' Nine Tails before the crucifixion.
The song "Kind Captain, I've Important Information" in the Gilbert and Sullivan play H.M.S. Pinafore, the final verse mentions using a Cat O' Nine Tails.
The song De Boatmen's Dance A minstrel show song of 1843 by Dan Emmett makes reference saying: "...Look out, my boys, for de nine tail cat".
The song "Whip in My Valise" by Adam and the Ants about S&M features a line "...they say your cat has got nine tails..."
In the 60's this was the preferred weapon of Catwoman, later being replaced by her trademark bullwhip.
In Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by author Neil Gaiman there is a story entitled "Other People" in which a man is tortured by a demon. One of the many apparatus used to torture the man is a cat o' nine tails made of frayed wire.
In Thief: Deadly Shadows, a jeweled cat o' nine tails can be stolen from High Priest Greidus of the Hammerites in the "St. Edgar's Eve" mission. It is a special loot item.
On the fifth-season episode of JAG, Boomerang part II, set in Australia, Harm (David James Elliott) and Mic (Trevor Goddard) are being berated by their commanding officers for their unprofessional behavior, the RAN Captain Houghton belts out, "I don't know whether to keelhaul you or take the cat to you." At which point USN Admiral Chegwidden says, "After 10,000 miles I want to do both."
In an episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns makes reference to the cat o' nine tails. Burns' says "Behold, the greatest breakthrough in labor relations since the cat-o-nine-tails!"
In the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, all the slave drivers in the mines had cat o' nine tails.
In the novel Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, cat o' nine tails are used on the prisoners at Kingston Penitentiary.
In the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, a cat-o-nine tails with metal balls woven into the braids is used.
In the 1990 film Shipwrecked, the film's protagonist, a little boy, is deemed to be punished by the full cat o' nine tails rather than the "reduced cat" for giving food and aid to a stowaway. A full grown man knocks the whip out of the executor's hands, protesting that the cat will cause the death of a little boy, to which the ship's captain says the man will suffer the punishment instead for trying to play hero. However, the court-martial is interrupted by a violent storm at sea.
In the pirate manga Destiny's Hand secondary character Diego Basteon uses a cat o' nine tails as his weapon of choice and his tattoo also depicts a tribal symbol with a skull and the weapon.
In the Aubrey-Maturin series, a cat is named "Scourge," after the Cat o' nine tails.

[edit] See also

Judicial corporal punishment
Physical punishment (includes comparison of disciplinary implements)
BDSM
Flogging
Scourge
Tawse
Whip

[edit] Sources and References and further reading

^ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Egypt: 2001, U.S. State Department.
^ Humphries, Stephen (1981). Hooligans or Rebels?: An oral history of working-class childhood and youth 1889-1939. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-12982-0.
^ Broadside. Crime and Punishment
^ Flogging Round the Fleet
^ Fort Henry, Canada.
^ Memorandum to prisons re: Birches and Cats-o'-nine tails, PRO HO 323/13, National Archives.
^ Case of Caesar v. Trinidad and Tobago, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Judgment of March 11, 2005.

[0] Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Egypt: 2001, U.S. State Department.

[1] Humphries, Stephen (1981). Hooligans or Rebels?: An oral history of working-class childhood and youth 1889-1939. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-12982-0.

[2] Broadside. Crime and Punishment

[3] Flogging Round the Fleet

[4] Fort Henry, Canada.

[5] Memorandum to prisons re: Birches and Cats-o'-nine tails, PRO HO 323/13, National Archives.

[6] Case of Caesar v. Trinidad and Tobago, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Judgment of March 11, 2005.

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