Látigo de nueve colas

El gato naval pesaba unos 370 gramos (13 onzas) y estaba compuesto por un mango conectado a nueve trozos de cuerda más delgados, cada uno anudado varias veces a lo largo de su longitud. ^{[ 4 ]} Los azotes formales —los ordenados por el capitán o el consejo de guerra— se administraban ceremonialmente en cubierta, se convocaba a la tripulación para que "presenciara el castigo" y los infantes de marina con bayonetas caladas traían al prisionero . ^{[ 4 ]} 

En la marina británica, el contramaestre se colocaba a dos pasos del agresor, peinando las colas del gato debido a que las partes más delgadas se pegaban entre sí. Luego, lo balanceaba por encima de su cabeza, daba un paso adelante y, doblando el cuerpo para dar más fuerza al golpe, asestaba el impacto con todo el movimiento de su brazo. ^{[ 3 ]}

La embriaguez podía castigarse con una docena de latigazos, que podían administrarse bajo la autoridad del capitán del barco. Los castigos más severos generalmente se aplicaban tras un consejo de guerra formal , y los registros de la Marina Real reflejan algunas penas estándar de 200 latigazos por deserción, 300 por motín y hasta 500 por robo. Un solo golpe era suficiente para arrancar la piel y hacer sangrar dondequiera que cayeran los nudos. Tres docenas era un castigo común. Con frecuencia se administraban 300 latigazos. ^{[ 5 ]} El delito de sodomía generalmente conllevaba la pena de muerte, aunque un consejo de guerra del siglo XVIII impuso un castigo de 1000 latigazos , una sentencia equivalente ya que probablemente sería fatal. ^{[ 6 ]} 

For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys, a lighter model was made, known as boy's cat or boy's pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord.^[7] If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would suffer the punishment of the adult cat. While adult sailors received their lashes on the back, they were administered to boys on the bare posterior, usually while "kissing the gunner's daughter" (publicly bending over a gun barrel), just as boys' lighter "daily" chastisement was usually over their (often naked) rear-end (mainly with a cane—this could be applied to the hand, but captains generally refused such impractical disablement—or a rope's end). Bare-bottom discipline was a tradition of the English upper and middle classes, who frequented public schools, so midshipmen (trainee officers, usually from 'good families', getting a cheaper equivalent education by enlisting) were not spared.^[8] Still, it is reported that the 'infantile' embarrassment of prolonged, public bare-bottom punishment was believed essential for optimal deterrence; cocky miscreants might brave the pain of the adult cat in the macho spirit of "taking it like a man" or even as a "badge of honour".

A soldier who was flogged in 1832, with a cat similar to that used in the King's fleet, said: "I felt an astounding sensation between the shoulders, under my neck, which went to my toe-nails in one direction, and my finger-nails in another, and stung me to the heart, as if a knife had gone through my body. He came on a second time a few inches lower, and then I thought the former stroke was sweet and agreeable compared with that one. I felt my flesh quiver in every nerve, from the scalp of my head to my toe-nails. The time between each stroke seemed so long as to be agonising, and yet the next came too soon. The pain in my lungs was more severe, I thought, than on my back. I felt as if I would burst in the internal parts of my body. I put my tongue between my teeth, held it there, and bit it almost in two pieces. What with the blood from my tongue, and my lips, which I had also bitten, and the blood from my lungs, or some other internal part, ruptured by the writhing agony, I was almost choked, and became black in the face. Only fifty had been inflicted, and the time since they began was like a long period of life; I felt as if I had lived all the time of my real life in pain and torture, and that the time when existence had pleasure in it was a dream, long, long gone by."^[5]