it was said that forcing loyal seamen to walk the plank was supposed, by the perpetrators, to "avoid the penalty for murder", but this legal argument would hardly have worked. not only would most legal authorities not have hesitated to prosecute any person who forced another to his death, but piracy and mutiny were also capital crimes. given the occasions on which it was known to have been employed, it appears more likely to have been an elaborate and unusual form of sadistic entertainment rather than a regular method of murdering unwanted captives.