Make the Punishment Fit the Crime….

During my time at Fisgard the establishment was run along similar lines to a boarding school except that there was a rather greater attention to discipline than might be found in a purely educational institution.   Transgressions against authority were punished arbitrarily and there did not appear to be any evidence in favour of a set tariff for a particular misdemeanour.   In other words, although it was known that a certain transgression would attract a certain type of punishment, the degree of punishment seemed, in many cases, to be determined by the mood of the officer holding defaulter’s report.   Stoppage of leave, stoppage of pay and leave, and jankers were the most common punishments with “cuts” and “isolation” being reserved for the more serious offences. 

In common with some boarding schools there existed in Fisgard a culture of “fagging” where the “sprogs”, or junior apprentices during their first term, were expected to carry out menial tasks for a senior apprentice.   It was a culture which the authorities had made every endeavour to stamp out but never quite succeeded.  To a certain extent it was underpinned by the tacit assent of the authorities to allow certain disciplinary measures to be administered by the “hook boys” or petty-officer apprentices supported by their senior colleagues.  So, whilst the authorities took care to deal with clear transgressions against establishment and Naval regulations it was left to the “hook boys” and seniors to deal with matters of general behaviour and hygiene in the living quarters.   The extent to which a “sprog” was leant upon by his senior, or seniors, depended entirely on how he conducted himself, both in the way he carried out his allotted tasks, and by his attitude towards the senior.  The golden rule, as a “sprog” was to keep your head down and get on with it.  Those that did not learn this rule quickly had reason to regret it by virtue of public ritual humiliation at the hands of the seniors, sometimes accompanied by “stropping” with the senior’s trouser belt.   That was the dark side of fagging and if a senior was caught by the authorities whilst administering these measures then he was for the high jump.  Such behaviour was classed as bullying (which it undoubtedly was) and was generally punished by the administration of “cuts”,  the name given to corporal punishment by caning, a procedure carried out by the Master at Arms.  

The award of corporal punishment was as much a psychological punishment as a physical one.  “Cuts” could only be awarded by the Captain of the establishment and since Captain’s Report was held relatively infrequently there was a nail biting delay waiting for the inevitable sentence.  Then there would be a further delay while the relevant people were assembled to witness the punishment.  At the appointed time the miscreant was escorted by two RPOs (Regulating Petty Officers) to a small room in the punishment block where he was instructed to remove his cap, shoes, jacket and trousers and to don a pair of stiff, white canvas trousers.  Suitable attired he was then escorted into a much larger room in which were waiting the Master at Arms together with the Officer of the Day and the Medical Officer.   The sole item of furniture in the middle of the room was a wooden chair to which the miscreant was steered and instructed to lean over its back and grasp the seat with both hands.   One of the RPOs would offer a gag to bite on before taking his place to the front and side of the chair.  At that point the Master at Arms would begin to administer, at measured intervals,  the required number of strokes which were counted out loud by one of the RPOs.  On completion the miscreant would be instructed to drop the canvas trousers and display his backside to the OOD and Medical Officer to ensure that there was no bleeding, or presumably to receive treatment if there was.   It was an intimidating and painful experience and during my time at Fisgard I never heard of anyone being awarded cuts more than once.   No one in their right minds would willingly invite this kind of punishment which achieved its aim of reminding the miscreant, and by proxy his colleagues, that it paid to remain within the law.  

The most serious punishment, reserved for the most heinous, or repeated offences, was “isolation” which, as the name implies, represents incarceration in a barred cell without the benefit of association with others.   I was never aware of any apprentice being sentenced to a period of isolation whilst I was at Fisgard although it was not so uncommon at HMS Caledonia where some apprentices completed their training.  The training routine at Fisgard was quite tough, starting at around six in the morning and finishing at eight in the evening four nights a week.  In addition there were fatigues to attend to on a Saturday morning so the amount of “shore leave” for apprentices was very limited.    This occasionally gave rise to a form of claustrophobia in some apprentices which, added to the naturally rebellious nature of adolescents at the mercy of their hormones, catalysed a form of behaviour known as “going over the fence.”   In military terms this describes an illicit departure from the establishment and going “absent without leave.”   This proved to be a common misdemeanour in apprentice training establishments and there were a number of apprentices who were addicted to this form of leave taking.  Those that were caught would generally receive stoppage of pay and leave with the addition of jankers but frequently repeated offences would attract a period of “isolation” or even a premature discharge from the Service.

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