The enforcement of the pirates' code of honor and discipline upon their own was cruel, and near as unthinkable as the fate that faced those whose capture meant execution and disgrace.

The execution of a miscreant pirate at the order of his own captain was swift, carried out with a gunshot, if he was lucky. Far more agonizing was the meting out of justice according to Moses' Law' which called for a skin-splitting lashing of up to 39 strokes with the whip. The pouring of salt water onto the wounds not only caused added pain, but often a fatal infection from gangrene. Contrary to common belief, rapists and murderers were often punished as well, by marooning on a tiny outcrop of land with only a pistol with which to take their own life. Others were simply thrown overboard, with 'walking the plank' being largely a myth.

The practice of keelhauling was seldom used by pirates, but rather as a commonly fatal and sadistic punishment in the English and Dutch navies where sailors were dragged under a ship along the razor sharp edges of barnacles.