page_title: Sailors' superstitions
section_title: Over a barrel
hierarchical_section_title: Sailors' superstitions / Practices and semiotics / Over a barrel
caption_attribution_description: 1912 illustration of an inmate in an American prison receiving "the paddle", a form of torture used for punishment. This was illegal at the time.
context_page_description: Sailors' superstitions have been superstitions particular to sailors or mariners, and which traditionally have been common around the world. Some of these beliefs are popular superstitions, while others are actually better described as traditions, stories, folklore, tropes, myths, or legend.
  The origins of many of these superstitions are based in the inherent risks of sailing, and luck, either good or bad, as well as portents and omens that would be given associative meaning in relation to the life of a mariner, sailor, fisherman or a crew in general. Even into the 21st century, "fishers and related fishing workers" still have amongst the most dangerous jobs, with the second highest rate of mortality only after loggers.
context_section_description: The phrase over a barrel, meaning to be in a dilemma or "a weak or difficult position", may refer to the first aid practice amongst sailors of placing a drowning victim's head over a barrel, and rolling his body over it, in an attempt to remove aspirated water from the person's lungs. However, this etymology is challenged, and may come instead from the custom of punishing a prisoner by flogging or paddling him while he is strapped to a barrel; there is no documentary evidence it was actually used specifically as a nautical phrase. Either way, the image created in the mind is that of total helplessness and loss of control, which is a common anxiety of sailors in fear of corporal punishment.
caption: Punishment of the Paddle, 1912
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