Bosun
Originally, onboard a sailing ship such as a man-of-war or a galleon, the boatswain (The slang is Bosun) was in charge of a ship's anchors, cordage, colors, deck crew and the ship's boats, and would also be in charge of the rigging while the ship was in dock; with steam and further mechanisation, the technical tasks have been modenized. It remains his duty to summon the crew to work by a whistle known as boatswain's pipe.
In the Royal Navy, in so far as that task didn't fall to the Master at arms or to the Marines corporal, he would also administer physical punishments, both informally with his boatswain's cane on the boys or with a rope's end on the adult sailors, either on an officer's instructions or at his own accord, and formally on deck on captain's or court martial's orders, usually birching or wielding the cat o' nine tails; in a large crew he could delegate this to one or more boatswain's mate(s), who might alternate after each dozen of lashes.
