If the commandeur decreed it.

[**The following is in regards to draconian measures taken against infractions of Dutch sailors in the 17th century.**] >Violence and disputes were severely punished, and the total lack of privacy made any form of sexual activity all but impossible for those who lived before the mast. >[…] >A few of the men (though not, it seems, too many) were active sodomites, but the penalties for being caught in a homosexual relationship were draconian; if the *commandeur* decreed it, the lovers could be sewn, together, into a sailcloth shroud and thrown alive into the ocean. The great majority of such affairs were thus conducted not among the men of the lower deck but between officers and common sailors, since the officers alone had access to private cabins and the status to coerce their partners (some of whom, at least, were unwilling) into silence. __________________________ **Source:** Dash, Mike. “The Tavern of the Ocean.” *Batavia's Graveyard*. Three Rivers Press, 2003. 108. Print.