That is, until I met my husband and he told me a hilarious story about why he loved climbing the pole at school.
I texted him my apoligies.
An exception was , long since retired from active service and by this time permanently moored at Portsmouth as a guard ship: 25 boys were flogged aboard her in 1856, receiving a total of 798 lashes between them.
Extreme crimes warrant extreme punishment.
This they do sometimes with their trousers lowered.
Admiralty instructions stated that when a boy was flogged the upper deck was to be cleared of adult seamen, but this was rarely enforced.