Posted on 12/26/2018 10:45:46 AM PST by NRx
The United States Navy has come a long way, from its first wooden frigates to today’s nuclear carriers. But in all that time, one thing remained almost as fixed as the North Star: A skipper’s power to throw troublesome sailors in the brig with nothing to eat but bread and water.
Though it sounds like something from an old pirate movie, the antique penalty is not only still on the Navy’s books, it is still actually imposed, despite a century of abolition efforts.
On New Year’s Day, it will finally go by the boards.
A sweeping update of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, passed by Congress in 2016, will take effect on Jan. 1, bringing dozens of changes that are intended to make the system fairer and more efficient. Most are the kind of procedural tweaks that concern lawyers, not sailors. But the bread-and-water part will be felt on all decks.
Commanders throughout the armed services will still have the authority to punish minor misconduct in various ways without a trial. But the new law deletes the regulation that authorized ship commanders to confine low-ranking sailors on “diminished rations” — bread and water — for up to three days at a time.
That regulation is no mere neglected relic from a bygone era. As recently as 2017, a destroyer in the Pacific was known as the U.S.S. Bread and Water because of the skipper’s liberal use of the penalty to punish missteps like missing a curfew or drinking under the legal age.
Many in the Navy will be happy to see it go. But some mourn what they see as an expedient and effective tradition of the seas.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bread and water was a piece of cake. it was the keel hauling that liked to have killed me.
CO used it on occasion, but preferred restriction and 1/2 pay for extended periods. I always felt the sailors would have preferred the B&W since it was limited to 3 days.
Any idea when the last recorded occurrence of a keel hauling was?
Bet the second time was worse than the first? //
The plank was no walk in the park either.
But seriously, some of the sailors I know do not need all of that starch anyway.
Steak and water would be much better for them.
First in to mention the Royal Navy’s “rum, sodomy, and the lash”.... I hope the US Navy does not rely upon any of that but with the PC mania there may be a lot more license for sodomy these days....
My Dad was WWII Navy and they referred to bread and water as “piss and punk”.
Apparently keel hauling may have been more apocryphal than real, even centuries ago.... the Brits seem not to have used it, though the Dutch may have used it a bit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keelhauling
The problem is American bread. It is largely water
As American bread is currently sold, the moisture content is as high as the bakers art is able to sustain. American bread is berely not dough
“Any idea when the last recorded occurrence of a keel hauling was?”
Ask Billy Budd (OK, OK, NOT US Navy....)
yay a kinder and gentler navy.
As a former pre-diabetic and low carb follower, I am thinking bread and water would be a serious punishment for me. I would rather go with bacon and water :)
That was my impression. I know a lib woman that says her dad said that they keel hauled a black guy in the ‘50s, I think it was. I called BS, but she uses it as a racial sob story. I don’t doubt her dad told her the story.
There were black guys serving on naval ships in the 50’s, and that could swim?
/sarc
Possible but unlikely.
Were there demands for gluten-free bread, and Perrier water?
They can do Quinoa & Green Tea instead!
Just don’t feed them Army biscuits. They say they are might fine, but one fell off the table and killed a friend of mine.*
*(May be exaggerated)
That’s the beauty of a keel hauling...you don’t have to be able to swim. I’m pretty sure it was a crock. Coulda been the 60’s...I think the guy was a drunk.
Canadian Bacon on buttered Crescent Rolls sprinkled with oregano? I would most likely survive it.
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