I was wrong in my earlier post about midshipmen and the cat, they could not be flogged, only beaten. There was a subtle difference in the RN. Flogging implied the use of the cat on a rating who was triced up on a grating, whereas a middy (also known as a 'snotty') could be beaten with a cane whilst lying over a gun.

Another term associated more in the USN than the RN today is 'son of a gun'.

In the RN women were often carried on board but not listed on the ships muster. This was at the captains discretion. The responsibility for feeding them and any offspring was down to the particular listed man. Therefore in many cases the women were the spouses of petty officers, bosuns, mates, warrant officers or commissioned officers. However this was not always so and if the spouse was married to a lower deck rating then she shared his mess space often sleeping on the deck between guns. If a child was concieved then it would be a 'son of a gun' even if the child was female.

What did these women do when the ship was in action? Often they would help the ships surgeon acting as unpaid nurses and loblolly boys.

Sorry about the drift.