Military punishment

One time I listened to this thing on public radio about the Lewis & Clark expedition. They were reading from journals recorded at the time. You'd be amazed at how much flogging there was. It was a military expedition and they kept flogging the troops. They kept on and on about the flogging. I can't remember why they did this, but Lewis & Clark were horrible people.

I was reminded of this when I read about the U.S. Navy eliminating "bread and water confinement" as an administrative punishment beginning in 2019. According to RT:

The administrative punishment that dates back to the age of sail was applied against sailors in the lowest three pay grades for insubordination, unauthorized absences or lewd behavior.

For example, one sailor aboard the submarine support ship USS Frank Cable was punished in the mid-1980s for running naked through the women’s berthing, Brenda Lettera, the ship’s cook, told Stripes.

“They get to eat as much bread as they want during the time,” Lettera said, explaining she gave the sailor two to three loaves for each meal. “Except for raisin bread. That wasn’t allowed.”

The punishment came into being in 1855, when the US Navy outlawed flogging. It was considered a progressive reform at the time, as the British Royal Navy continued flogging sailors until 1879.

 I had no idea anything like that existed.