Originally Posted by ilnjscb

In the english navy, you could get 500 strokes. You were hit til you passed out, revived the next day, beaten again, until you died or 500. Anyone left alive went "mad" probably from pain and trauma. People who survived 100 had their shoulder bones showing through their skin.

Many times, you'd get 50 for refusing to be sodomized by a superior officer, and this is after you were gang pressed and forced into the service against your will.

Each man was issued a pint of rum a day and small beer, so people got through this by staying drunk for 20 years.