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Musicmystery -> RE: This is how Russian Sailors handle pirates. (1/15/2012 1:02:36 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Moonhead
quote:
ORIGINAL: lovmuffin
Whatever happened to walking the plank ??
Not something that was ever done historically in the first place, sadly. It seems to have been invented for an Erroll Flynn flick...
But the phrase far predates motion pictures:
The earliest known use of the phrase is the latter half of the 18th century. Some writers in the 20th century speculated that walking the plank may be a myth created by cinema; however, the phrase "walking the plank" is recorded in English writer Francis Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue",[1] which was published in 1788 (first published in 1785).
Historical instances of plank walking
In 1769, mutineer George Wood confessed to his chaplain at Newgate Prison that he and his fellow mutineers had sent their officers to walk the plank.[2]
In July 1822, William Smith, captain of the British sloop Blessing, was forced to walk the plank by the Spanish pirate crew of the schooner Emanuel in the West Indies.
The Times reported on February 14, 1829 that the packet Redpole (Bullock, master) was captured by the pirate schooner President and sunk. The commander was shot and the crew were made to walk the plank.[3]
In 1829, pirates intercepted the Dutch brig Vhan Fredericka in the Leeward Passage between the Virgin Islands, and murdered most of the crew by making them walk the plank with cannonballs tied to their feet[4].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_the_plank
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