Torture in Pirate days


Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir dogs  
Torture is a word that makes people's skin crawl.  It brings up horrific images of inhuman acts being performed. The general jumps to military torture such as the iconic waterboarding technique. Torture has also been reimagined in the medium of film. Quentin Tarantino's first film Reservoir dogs weren't just conversations revolving around whether Mr pink should tip or not. The image to the left should bring back memories of descriptive torture seen in the film.


The scene has Mr. White who has captured a cop dance around to the song stuck in the middle with you by Steelers Wheel. Mr. White takes a razor blade and cuts the cop's face, this doesn't seem to satisfy the man so as of result he takes the same razor and cuts the man's ear off. This scene is disturbing, making the viewer's skin crawl, but is nothing compared to the type of torture the pirates in the golden age used.

Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Flag directed by-
Gore Verbinski
First, off something to point out, is that walking the plank, the most common torture in pirate fantasy and film is false. Walking the plank was fiction, but pirates did something similar to it with marooning. Marooning is when someone is deserted on an island with no food or water they are left to fend for themselves.

If the film Pirates and the Caribbean the curse of the black flag comes to mind it should. Jack and Elizabeth Swann were marooned. Sparrow spouting the now infamous line "Why's the rum gone?".  This form of torture is still awful leaving the victim to slowly starve to death, but it is nothing compared to the more severe types of torture pirates dished out.

This was similar to a pat on the back compared to other forms of torture pirates could dish out. The most common form of torture came in the form of keelhauling. Allthatisinteresting.com describes Kneelhauling is when someone is tied to a rope and put under the haul of the ship. the victim is underwater and being bashed by barnacles and other things stuck to the bottom of the ship. Bones would be broken and the victim's head would be repeatedly bashed in by the ship. If the victims did not die from the relentless beating under the ship, they would have mostly drowned under the ship.

Unusual punishment was no stranger to pirates back in the golden age. In David Cordingly's book Under the Black flag a man named Gow received unbelievable punishment. First after refusing to cooperate his thumps were tied together by a ripcord. The cord was then pulled until his thumbs and the cord completely broke. Gow's torture is unheard of and currently illegal since that falls into cruel and unusual punishment.

Torture in today's world is wrong and unsettling. The mere idea is nerve-racking, but it is nothing compared to pirate torture. Pirates had no moral code they killed, raped and stole as they pleased. As a result the torture they dished out was cruel and unholy. They dabbled in all types of torture from marooning to breaking thumbs with a simple cord Pirate's issued the most brutal torture of all time.

References
https://allthatsinteresting.com/keelhauling
Cordingly, D. (2006). Under the black flag: the romance and the reality of life among the pirates. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.







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