""Kissing the Gunner's daughter" (i.e., having your face pressed against a cannon barrel while it is being fired)"

"Kissing the Gunner's daughter" in the Royal Navy normally was a punishment administered by the birch, or cane, and normally reserved for the younger members of the ship's crew (midshipmen, powder monkeys and nippers - boys between the ages of 9 and 14 ).

About thirty odd years ago Madame Tusaud's in London had an exhibition that portrayed what conditions were like on the main gun deck of HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar. The Navy was asked to assist in getting a recording of the noise a 32pound cannon made when it was fired. This recording was made in Portsmouth Dockyard. One of Victory's guns was inspected and declared safe to fire, a pit for the gun to fire into prepared, and the gun was rigged and duly fired. The noise was terrific, the recoil of the gun even more so. In position on a gun deck, the only means they had, at that time, to check the recoil of the gun was to rig heavy blocks and tackle running on each side of the gun attached to the gun carriage and ships hull. So unless the guns of that period in the USN were rigged differently - having witnessed the above - nobody in their right minds would stand anywhere near the gun when it was fired. The risk of death or serious injury would have been too great, not only for the person being punished, but also for those holding him in position.

Re: the thread I would go along with "Put him to bed with the Captain's/Bosun's Starter" - sounds more like it fits, as does the line in the first verse which reads, "Put him in her scuppers with the yard-arm under" as opposed to "Put him in the scuppers with a hose pipe on him"