[LMB] OT: pour encourage les autres was Convert and quotation

[Marna Nightingale]

Richard Suitor wrote:

> Actually, something you'd know a lot more about than I - I gather
> treatment on ships was often brutal.  In that environment, the
> enlisted (or pressed) did not have general access to small arms, and
> were often dependent on the officers to get them home.  How would
> treatment of the naval rank and file compare to the army's?

Surprisingly well, really. (cf Myths of Nelson's Navy and a couple other 
things I can't lay hands on ATM)

Brutalised men can't sail a ship, nevermind fight one, so that all cut 
both ways. And marooning the officers was not unknown; the bosun could 
get you home. Most crews had men who could navigate aboard.

The marines were there to keep order, but if THEy got disgusted with the 
way the officers behaved, well.

The food was often bad -- but it was the best that could be got, and 
they knew it.

Infractions that would mess up the tight discipline you need to keep one 
of those puppies afloat weren't tolerated -- but an unusually high rate 
of corporal punishment meant you had trouble getting men and had to fall 
back on the press gang and the jails, and your odds of promotion werent' 
good.

And so forth. It wasn't an easy life, but neither was life ashore in 
those years, and really, the best guarantee of a well behaved crew was 
keeping them tired and finding them prizes. The first was easy, thte 
second a bit less so.

Marna.