Definition of "keelhaul"
keelhaul
verb
third-person singular simple present keelhauls, present participle keelhauling, simple past and past participle keelhauled
(transitive, nautical) To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship.
Quotations
March 11 .—Hermans Jans, boatswain; disobedience of orders and stabbing his captain; sentenced to be degraded to common seaman, to be thrice keelhauled, to be well flogged, to have the knife stuck through his hand, and to forfeit, pro fisco, 6 months' wages.
1838, D[onald] Moodie, comp., transl. and ed., “Abstract of Criminal Convictions before the Court of Justice, Cape of Good Hope.—1662–1672.”, in The Record; or, A Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, Part 1 (1649–1720), Cape Town: Published by A. S. Robertson, page 312
By degrees they became noisier and noisier, their conversation principally turning on that infernal naval lieutenant, as they were pleased to designate me, and what they intended to do with him. Some suggested “keelhauling” him; others, a dose of his favourite cat-o’nine tails; whilst many advised making a target of him for a little practice with that revolver which had previously so cowed them all.
1873 October 1, “Mutiny Aboard. An Unsought Adventure.”, in The British Flag and Christian Sentinel (New Series), number 46, London: Army Scripture Readers' and Soldiers' Friend Society, page 543, column 1
To keelhaul is the cruelest and most dangerous of punishments and tortures ever devised for men aboard a ship. It involves trussing a man up with ropes, throwing him overboard, unable to swim, and hauling him under the boat's keel from one side to the other, or even from stem to stern. Most of those keelhauled under water are already dead when their punishment is over.
1973, Julius Epstein, Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present, Old Greenwich, Conn.: Devin-Adair Publishing Company
(transitive) To rebuke harshly.
Quotations
I've done these inquiries myself, Col. The top people can always put up such a bloody fine brick wall for themselves that no outsider has a chance of getting over or seeing through. But the same wall may stop some nonentity making his getaway, and he's the one the inquiry keelhauls.
1988, Bill James, Protection, London: Constable & Co.
I've been asking myself the same question and there are two ways to answer it—yes and no. Yes, because he took on a responsibility no one else wanted—for the reasons we've all witnessed—and no because keelhauling him will be five percent about fixing what he may have done wrong and ninety-five percent about scapegoating.
2004, Jeff Rovin, Tempest Down, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Griffin Press, ISBN 978-0-312-30761-5; republished New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Paperbacks, May 2005, ISBN 978-0-312-93480-4, page 404