Walking the plank

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"Walk the plank" redirects here. For other uses, see Walk the Plank.
Pirate walking the plank, as painted by Howard Pyle.
Pirate walking the plank, as painted by Howard Pyle.

Walking the plank is a phrase that describes a form of murder or torture that was practiced by pirates, mutineers and other rogue seafarers. It involved the victim being forced to walk off the end of a wooden plank or beam extended over the side of a ship, thereby falling into the water to drown, sometimes with bound hands or weighed down, often into the vicinity of sharks (which would often follow ships). The earliest known use of the phrase dates back to 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 Francis Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue"[1] which was published in 1788 (first published in 1785).

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[edit] 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 1822, William Smith, captain of the sloop Blessing, was forced to walk the plank by the pirate crew of the schooner Emanuel. 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 was made to walk the plank.[3] And 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[citation needed].

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

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  • Nowadays it is enacted only in a mock version, where the victim is just thrown into a safe pool, e.g. during hazing, possibly in silly dress and/or denuded.
  • In the movie Star Trek Generations, freshly promoted Lieutenant-Commander Worf must walk a simulated plank on the holodeck; Riker instructs the ship's computer to remove the plank. The plank is removed rather than retracted as Riker had intended, causing Worf to fall into the water, much to the crew's amusement.
  • In the Dr Who story The Pirate Planet, the fourth Doctor Tom Baker is made to walk a plank 1000 feet up in the air by the insane half-robot pirate Captain when K9 kills his pet robot parrot. It transpires that it is not the Doctor but a projection from the evil Queen Xanxia's cellular regenerator that makes the fall.
  • In the TV series Captain Pugwash, Pugwash and his crew are made to walk the plank by Cuthroat Jake. However, Tom the Cabin boy has a dingy waiting to pull them out the water. When Jake and his crew walk onto the plank to try to see what has become of their victims Tom and Pugwash creep up behind them and cut the rope tying down the plank so they fall in.
  • World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Wrestler Paul Birchill, who portrayed a pirate as his gimmick, performs a move he called "Walking The Plank."
  • A version of walking the plank occurs in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Here, Luke Skywalker is about to be forced to fall to a horrific fate in the mouth of the Sarlacc. However, Skywalker turns the execution against his would-be killers by suddenly using the plank as a springboard to jump back into the midst of his enemies while R2-D2 launches his lightsaber to him to battle them.
  • In the 1985 movie The Goonies, a couple of the main characters are forced to walk the plank by some criminals.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann and Jack Sparrow are forced to walk the plank by Barbossa.
  • In politics, the term "walk the plank" refers to a situation where leaders of a political party force rank-and-file members to make a potentially career-ending vote for the sake of party unity and passage of priority legislation.[1] Or alternatively where a senior politician who has come under severe public criticism is forced to resign and take the blame for a debacle because his colleagues refuse to back him. [2]
  • In the film Down Periscope, after Lieutenant Pascal attempts to take command of the submarine, Commander Dodge forces him to walk the plank for mutiny. Pascal falls into a net held aloft by a passing fishing vessel and Dodge acknowledges the fishing vessel's assistance.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue", Francis Grose, 1788, Google Books (originally published 1785)
  2. ^ Douglas Botting, The Pirates, TimeLife Books, 1978, p. 58.
  3. ^ The Times, February 14, 1829, pg.3

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

[edit] Other meanings

See Walk the Plank.