Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-04-01

The French Galleys.

A French Protestant, who,on account
of his religion, served ten years in the
galleys at Dunkirk, and was finally re-
leased at the instance of Queen Anne
of England, wrote an account of his
servitude Q700 to no, and of galley
slavery in general. From this old
volume we learned that an ordinary
galley was about one hundred and fifty
feet long and forty feet wide. She was
provided with masts and sails and
fifty rOwers' benches, twenty-five on
each side, and was armed with five
cannOns, all of which were placed in the
forward part of the galley. The oars
were fifty feet long, thirty-seven feet
without and thirteen feet within the
galley. Between the benches there
was a passage-way three feet wide.
The handling of oars was very hard
work. Each rover stood with one foot
on his own bench and the other on
the bench before him, then he reached
as far forward as possible, raising his
oar and dipping it in the water, then
he leaned back, with his foot braced,
until he came down on his own bench.
If these movements were not made
with regularity, the rOwers were in
danger of hitting their hands on the
oars before them.
The narrator SAYS that this labor was
sometimes exacted for twenty-fOur
hours, which, however, seems too much
for human endurance. AT some times,
he says, a piece of bread soaked in
wine was, at intervals, put into their
mouths If one of the rOwers gave out,
he was beaten as long as there were
anv signs of life in him, and then,
without further ceremony, he was
thrown overheard. Their daily fare
consisted of bread and beans; their
dress, of shirt, breeches, red stockings
and cap, and q blouse, all of the
cOarsest material. So long as the galley
was under way no one was allowed to
sleep; if she lay at anchor or in harbor
the rowers crouched down between
their benches and slept. In winter,
wien the galley was dismantled, their
only bed was board. At this season
o. the year, they were variOusly en-
ployed, and never allowed to be idle.
If any one of note visited the galleys,
the cOnvicts were put through a series
of man9uvers as humiliating as they
were ridiculous.
At the first sound of the whistle-a
whistle was used in commanding them
as the trumpet is in commanding dra-
gOons-they all laid aside their caps, at
the second their blouses, at the third
their shirts, when they were ready for
the farce to begin. At a given signal
they now lie down between their
benches so that no one could be seen;
then, at given signals, they showed,
first, a finger above the benches, then
an arm, then the head, and SO on, until
they stood each in his place, when they
were put through variety of maneu-
vers, better calculated to disgust than
to amuse the spectator.
The punishment usually inflicted was
the bastinadO. The unfortunate, after
being stripped to the waist, was made
to lie fiat down, while two galley slaves
held his hands and two his feet and an
other laid on the blows. The latter
was also stripped; and behind HIM
stood the captain also with bastlnado
in his hand, which he used on the back
of the executiOner if he showed any
disposition to spare the criminal. After
the tenth or twelfth blow the culprit
was almost always speechless and
mOtionless, still the punishment was
continued. From twenty to thirty
blows was the usual sentence for tri-
fling offenses. The maximum number
was one hundred; this punishment,
however, few survived. For eXcep-
tiOnal offenses the criminal was SEN
fenced TO have his feet bound to two
different vessels, which were then put
in motion in opposite directions, and he
was torn to pieces.