Could you please provide detailed definitions of the terms “drawn and quartered” and “keelhauling”? The former conjures up images of having cartoons drawn on one’s body before being pelted with pocket change. The latter could refer to being bound to the underside of a ship, boat, barge, whatever. My daughter’s Disney movie (Peter Pan) refers to both–didn’t they think kids would eventually have access to the Internet? –Ted Jankowski, via the Internet
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We’d all better brush up on this stuff–if they’re bringing back the chain gang, can keelhauling be far behind? Not that the latter is a realistic possibility if they nab you for jaywalking in Omaha. Keelhauling was meted out to sailors for minor infractions at sea. Typically the victim was tied to a rope looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard, and then dragged under the keel and up the other side. Since the keel was usually encrusted with barnacles and other crud, the guy’s hide would be scraped raw and he’d think twice about doing whatever it was he’d gotten keelhauled for again. Sometimes they heaped chains and such on him to add injury to insult.
Finally the condemned was beheaded and his body cut into quarters, one arm or leg to a quarter. How exactly the quartering was to be accomplished wasn’t always specified, but on at least some occasions horses were hitched to each of the victim’s limbs and spurred in four directions. An assistant with a sword or cleaver was sometimes assigned to make a starter cut and ease the strain on the animals. The remains were often put on display as a warning to others. Nothing like the good old days, eh? Just don’t anybody mention this to Newt.
