Salt eel

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1893 text

A salt eel is a rope’s end cut from the piece to be used on the back of a culprit. “Yeow shall have salt eel for supper” is an emphatic threat.

This text was written as a footnote in the 1893 Wheatley transcription of the diary, the same one that is used for the diary entries on this site.

N TerryF on Tue 25 Apr 2006, 01:03am

“A salt eel. A rope’s end, used for scourging. At one time eelskins were used for whips [to correct boys, &c. at sea].”
“With my salt eele, went down in the parler, and there got my boy and did beat him.”—Pepys Diary (April 24th [1663]). http://www.bartleby.com/81/5655.html
N in Aqua Scripto on Tue 25 Apr 2006, 07:18pm

eel, it doth dull a sharp knife very quickly, ‘tis tougher than a cane and doth have more flex to get around the victim to ensure that the weal be uniform from start to finish.