[TheForge] OT (?) What's this?

[Washington, Aubrey O.]

Frosty,

I just can't believe you have figured this one out yet.  My brother Tom (who is, gratefully, not on theforge) submitted this explanation.  ;-)

Aubrey

Ahhh!

It's a "Gaggle Gibbet" dating back to those merry old days of England when you could get your ass executed for stealing a loaf of bread or being a Scot.  Cost-cutting measures combined with high demand for gallows space (exacerbated by the common practice of leaving the bodies hanging there for several months) lead to a competition sponsored by the Home Secretary for Population Control.  The prize was to be awarded to the inventor who could devise a way to dispose of the greatest number of waifs at the lowest possible cost.

The "Gaggle Gibbet" works by maximizing the efficiency of a single post in the ground (no expensive gallows arms or cross-pieces).  Just bore a hole in the top of the post, insert that tapered piece in the hole, and start stringing up a gaggle of Irishmen.

The "Gaggle Gibbet" was not a winner.  At about the same time the Royal Navy started getting out of the wooden ship business.  It turned out to be equally effective and less costly to crowd a few hundred people onto a hulk in Norfolk and just not feed them.

Anything else you need?

Tom