Does anybody know the old Naval term that refers to hanging a man in front of a cannon on a ship and firing the cannon?

Perhaps another will know the name for this particular practice.

Click here for descriptions of other punishments including starting, flogging, hanging, running the gauntlet and kissing the gunner's daughter.

I don't know of a specific term for this barbaric punishment, but it was also inflicted on sepoys convicted of taking part in the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8. They were lashed across the muzzle of a cannon and a ball fired through their bodies. This destruction of the body was particularly cruel in that it destroyed the victim's hope of entering paradise.

Being tied across or along a cannon's barrel before being lashed was a common punishment in the Royal Navy of the 18th century. This was called 'Kissing (or marrying) the gunner's daughter'...as 'Fuse says above. Perhaps the procedure of being tied across the actual muzzle was described by using a word that took the seemingly-loving process one stage further!