Punishment - Picking Oakum

One form of punishment at sea about which I have read in several books is picking apart old ropes into its basic hemp fiber thus creating oakum, that mixed with tar, is used to caulk seams.

This process is tedious and difficult if not allowed any tools other than the fingers.

I found a webpage that indicates that the work of re-cycling old ropes in this manner was also employed ashore in work houses and asylums.

ClickHEREfor the information.

Anyone else read of this punishment?

Don

I confess I don't think I've come across this before. Thanks for the link. I marvel at the range of topics that get posted on this forum, and for the interesting items that get "dug" up, and the links provided for perusal.

I have found a few references to the punishment in The Times, and will post what I consider is the most interesting.

I did note, however, that the practice was still in use in 1967 (THE TIMES, June 21, of that year).

" .... Picking oakum and sewing mailbags are losing favour as ways of reforming criminals - especially now that the G.P.O. is conducting experiments with paper and plastic sacks for carrying the mail. ..... "

The short article finishes with: " .... Meanwhile the Home Office is busy looking for new ways to re-educate the 35,000 prisoners in its care ..... Mailbag sewing, they may have felt, can lead a little too rapidly to mailbag-snatching."


G.P.O. incidentally refers to the Post Office/Royal Mail's old name - General Post Office.

Thanks again,

Hi,

For what it's worth, in the remarks at the end of his medical journal for the voyage to New South Wales in the convict ship "Guildford", which arrived there on 30 Sept 1820, the Surgeon-Superintendent Hugh Walker RN wrote "..and I do not know of any better employment for the Convicts than the picking of Oakum". His general remarks show that he was a humane and concerned surgeon (unlike many on the "convict ship run") and his comments about picking oakum were clearly meant to be a positive contribution to onboard order and health. If anyone's interested, the journal can be seen at the National Archives in Kew, Ref ADM 101/31/2.

Brian

Thank you! It's a great site; I only dicovered it yesterday.

I remember hearing or reading somewhere that the Royal Navy's tradition of saluting palm-down was connected with this punishment. Picking oakum by hand left the fingers deeply stained by the tar that the ropes had been impregnated with, as their normal preservative. It is hearsay that the RN salute allowed a sailor to preserve dignity by not revealing that he had recently undergone this punishment.

Martin

From Dickens' "Oliver Twist"



Rick Spilman
Old Salt Blog