For the slightest offence he was "drubbed at the gears"; for serious offences, from ship to ship. If, when reefing topsails on a dark night or in the teeth of a sudden squall, he did not handle the canvas with all the celerity desired by the officer of the watch, he and his fellow yardsmen were flogged _en bloc_. He was made to run the gauntlet, often with the blood gushing from nose and ears as the result of a previous dose of the cat, until he fell to the deck comatose and at the point of death. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1466--Complaint of ye Abuse of a Sayler in the _Litchfield_, 1704. In this case the man actually died.] Logs of wood were bound to his legs as shackles, and whatever the nature of his offence, he invariably began his expiation of it, the preliminary canter, so to speak, in irons. If he had a lame leg or a bad foot, he was "started" with a rope's-end as a "slacker." If he happened to be the last to tumble up when his watch was called, the rattan [Footnote: Carried at one time by both commissioned and warrant officers.] raised weals on his back or drew blood from his head; and, as if to add insult to injury, for any of these, and a hundred and one other offences, he was liable to be black-listed and to lose his allowance of grog. Some things, too, were reckoned sins aboard ship which, unhappily for the sailor, could not well be avoided. Laughing, or even permitting the features to relax in a smile in the official presence, was such a sin. "He beats us for laughing," declare the company of the _Solebay_, in a complaint against their commander, "more like Doggs than Men." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1435--Capt. Aldred, 29 Feb. 1703-4.] One of the _Nymph's_ company, in or about the year 1797, received three dozen for what was officially termed "Silent Contempt"--"which was nothing more than this, that when flogged by the boatswain's mate the man smiled." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Petitions, 1793-7.] This was the "Unpardonable Crime" of the service. Contrariwise, a man was beaten if he sulked. And as a rule the sailor was sulky enough. Works of supererogation, such as polishing everything polishable--the shot for the guns, in extreme cases, not even excepted--until it shone like the tropical sun at noonday, left him little leisure or inclination for mirth. "Very pretty to look at," said Wellington, when confronted with these glaring evidences of hyper-discipline, "but there is one thing wanting. I have not seen a bright face in the ship."