Talk:Walking the plank

message: I heard a myth about him that he would take the sails of an enemy ship (only if he found them to be useless) and would force the crew of the captured vessel to lay in it. Then, he'd have the sail sewn up and flung overboard. Has anyone else heard about this? -IHouse —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.255.130.104 (talk) 05:09, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Captain Kidd 

message: I have heard (somewhere - I can't remember the source) that pirates' practice of forcible ejection of persons from their ships without benefit of boat, whether or not using a plank, was usually done in the close vicinity of land, perhaps a deserted island.  It was thus a method of disposing of awkward personages, but not necessarily one of execution. --King Hildebrand 14:35, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sad to say, a lot of pirate victims were hurled overboard far from land (usually without the use of a plank), and allowed to drown.  Marooning wasn't done by throwing someone overboard; the victim was normally put in a boat with some other pirates, rowed to shore, thrown on the beach (at pistol point if necessary), and the pirates would row back to their ship.  Pirate Dan 20:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Execution or marooning? 

message: See article on capital punishment.  Execution refers to killing someone according to a judicial death sentence after being convicted of some crime.  Walking the plank wasn't reserved for people who had broken some law; it was just a psychologically torturous way of getting rid of prisoners. Pirate Dan 13:40, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not an execution method 

message: The pop culture section is ridiculous. All kinds of trivial references from modern-day movies and TV shows, but nothing about Peter Pan? It's that story that made "walking the plank" famous! (Reference: Under the Black Flag, David Cordingly, 1996, Random House). *** Crotalus *** 09:23, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: And your reason for posting that on the talk page instead of directly updating the articles is? Mlewan (talk) 09:28, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: actually, i think a pop. culture section is deserved. even star wars had it, albit modified so the victum fell into the sarlacc pit rather then water. same idea though  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.115.204.217 (talk) 20:58, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Popular culture section

message: From the lede: "Although forcing captives to walk the plank is a motif of pirates in popular culture in the 19th through 21st centuries, few instances are documented, except in the early days of the U.S. Navy where walking the plank was used to execute sailors convicted of serious crimes like mutiny or murder so the frequency of the practice is uncertain. [1][2]".  The two linked sources both say that it is a myth that pirates made people walk the plank, and neither say anything about the US Navy using it as a punishment for mutiny or murder.  (In contrast, there is a historic claim mentioned further down the article that mutineers used it as a means of disposing of loyalist crew). Iapetus (talk) 13:26, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Claims not supported by sources