Horrifying simulation shows gruesome torture method used to punish sailors at sea

In yet another reason to be exceedingly glad you live in this day and age and not centuries ago, there's a torture method they used to use on sailors who'd done wrong and were in for a world of hurt.

Despite a lot of interesting things happening in it, the past is a very s**t place to be living in as lots of cruel punishments awaited those who ended up in trouble.

Depending on the time you lived in you could be stretched to breaking point on the rack, broken upon a wheel, have your head fitted with a cage to shut you up and shame you, popped inside a giant metal bull and cooked to death or popped between two boats covered in honey and eaten alive by insects over the course of days.

Aren't you glad you live in a time with modern medicine, clearly defined human rights and interesting things on the TV?

Another one of these gruesome punishments that was used to torture and sometimes kill people is known as 'keelhauling', a practice carried out at sea since it required a chuffing large boat to make work.

In essence, keelhauling would involve looping a rope around the underside of a ship and attaching a very unfortunate individual to that rope.

They'd then be lowered underneath the vessel and dragged around to the other side of the boat, being scraped along the underside of the hull as they went.

This was by no means a smooth journey as they'd be dragged across planks of uneven, rotting wood that could be covered in all sorts of barnacles, making it akin to being dragged across a series of very sharp objects while also drowning.

One imagines that the people pulling an unfortunate soul subjected to this punishment under the ship had little regard for giving them a smooth ride either.

If the victim wasn't keelhauled fast enough then they'd likely drown and die underneath the ship, and even if they did make it to the other side, the several bleeding wounds covered in saltwater would very possibly kill the poor soul as well.

If you'd like to see it for yourself, here's a pretty gristly simulation from Zack D. Films:

The first mention of keelhauling comes from around 700BC, with the Ancient Greeks using it as a punishment for pirates they caught - meaning this is a method of punishment that really does go back a long way.

While some English writers have claimed that the English navy used keelhauling as a method of punishment, there aren't official records of it being used.

However, over in the Netherlands, the Dutch navy had multiple recorded incidents where keelhauling was used.

In 1652, a sailor who had deserted the Dutch East India Company for nine days was keelhauled, given 150 lashes and then enslaved for two years.

Meanwhile, in 1673, Dutch sailors who had committed murder were punished by being keelhauled, though while it was an official punishment during this time it was a rare one and not something that was happening all the time out at sea.

Artistic depictions of keelhauling which we've included in this piece for your viewing pleasure always seem keen to add in plenty of spectators and emphasise the point that this was a punishment designed to not only maim the victim but set an example to others.