Bosun's cane
In some spheres, the cane, which is typically used by a certain disciplinarian, is commonly named after him. Thus in the Royal Navy, the bosun's cane was frequently used on the backsides of boys without ceremony (as opposed to publicly kissing the gunner's daughter, a formal bare bottom flogging on deck ordered by the captain or a court-martial, usually involving birch or cat o' nine tails) on the spot or in the gun room, for daily offenses (at least one mid-19th-century captain had every single junior boy given six cane strokes every morning on various pretexts considered too insignificant to require written formalities or orders from an officer (who certainly could and routinely also did order the cane, actually wielding it was considered unsuitable for a gentleman), but more severe than the bimmy. The cane in the hands of a corporal (especially of the Marines on board many fighting ships, often ordered to carry out formal punishment of crew members as well) was called stonnacky. In an attempt to standardize the canes (but the effective wielding is impossible to capture in written rules) the Admiralty had specimens according to all prevailing prescriptions, called patterned cane (and birch), kept in every major dockyard.
See also [ Caning ]
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