It is of a piece with the penal laws that prevailed in England some sixty years ago, when one hundred and sixty different offences were declared by the statute-book to be capital, and the servant-maid who but pilfered a watch was hung beside the murderer of a family.
It is one of the most common punishments for very trivial offences in the Navy, to "stop" a seaman's _grog_ for a day or a week.

And as most seamen so cling to their _grog_, the loss of it is generally deemed by them a very serious penalty.

You will sometimes hear them say, "I would rather have my wind _stopped_ than _my grog!_" But there are some sober seamen that would much rather draw the money for it, instead of the grog itself, as provided by law; but they are too often deterred from this by the thought of receiving a scourging for some inconsiderable offence, as a substitute for the stopping of their spirits.

This is a most serious obstacle to the cause of temperance in the Navy.

But, in many cases, even the reluctant drawing of his grog cannot exempt a prudent seaman from ignominy; for besides the formal administering of the "_cat_" at the gangway for petty offences, he is liable to the "colt," or rope's-end, a bit of _ratlin-stuff_, indiscriminately applied--without stripping the victim--at any time, and in any part of the ship, at the merest wink from the Captain.