Boys daily scurried about the decks barefoot, climbed the rigging in all climatic conditions and were deliberately toughened up to cope with a life at sea. #Gay twink spanking tumblr freeįood, recreation time and conversation were sacrosanct to them, and reduced diets, extra drill, denial of free time and solitary confinement in the ships' cells were resented by boys, and awkward to supervise, even if effective. Working-class boys had little or no schooling at that time and hence little experience of formal (still less bare) posterior chastisement. A crude wallop from an irate mother or belting from a father was the limit of it. Stephen Humphries in his book on working-class childhood in a later period, 'Hooligans or Rebels?', raises some interesting aspects.
