Geocache Identification Permit Approval Number: AMSP20190907004
Permit Expires on: 09/07/22
Walking the plank was a form of murder or torture thought to have been practiced by pirates, mutineers and other rogue seafarers. The victim was forced to walk off the end of a wooden plank or beam extended over the side of a ship, 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 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", which was published in 1788 (first published in 1785).
It was said that forcing loyal seamen to walk the plank was supposed, by the perpetrators, to "avoid the penalty for murder", (by not actually killing the victims), but this would hardly have worked. Not only would most lawmen not have hesitated to prosecute any person who forced another to his death, but piracy and mutiny were also capital crimes. However, a plank-walking may have been easier on the perpetrators' consciences.
Although walking the plank plays a large role in contemporary pirate lore, in reality walking the plank was a very rare phenomenon. Most pirates, mutineers, etc., would not bother with such an elaborate means of doing away with their captives. The few who particularly enjoyed torturing their victims (such as Edward Low) would probably have used longer-lasting methods.
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