plunging in water, a diversion anciently practised among the Goths, by way of exercise; but among the Celts, Franks, and ancient Germans, it was a sort of punishment for persons of scandalous lives.

They were shut up, naked to the shift, in an iron cage, fastened to the yard of a shallop, and ducked several times.

Ducking at the main-yard, among seamen, is a way of punishing offenders on board a ship; and is performed by binding the malefactor, by a rope, to the end of the yard, from whence he is violently let down into the sea, once, twice, or three times, according to his offence: and if the offence be very great, he is drawn underneath the keel of the ship, which they call keel-haling.