“Walk the Plank” is a metaphoric idiom. I’ll let you decipher that one however; we can agree to accept the general consensus referring to a meaning of “forced to resign” … one way or another.

According to literature, to walk the plank is to walk off a wooden plank extending from a ship in order to drown or be eaten by sharks. One might be blindfolded, or have the hands bound to prevent people from swimming to safety. This was not actually a common practice during the glory days of pirates but it did happen. 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.

The idea of having to walk to one’s own death regardless of the action that precedes it can have many connotations. For example, in Peter Pan the children must choose between the punishment of walking the plank and death or becoming pirates and surviving. The emphasis here is that it may be better to die than to be villainous and evil for life… indeed a philosophical quandary.

Captain Flagelo Vermelho was the scourge of Portugal. He was called the most evil man alive ... a sadistic, thieving murderer and debaucher. He single handedly murdered a whole crew as they slept because they displeased him. On his last voyage he was seen musing at the sunset. The crew thinking he was quite drunk watched with amusement as he ordered the plank to be extended and proceeded to walk out to the middle of it. His balance was incredible and he stood there for a long time moving in synch with the ship and the wobbling plank, whiskey bottle in hand. After an hour, the few crew members on deck lost interest and proceeded to continue their evening duties before bedding down for the night. No one dared to speak to or question the Captain. The night came and went and the dawn soon broke. As the morning sun rose, no sign of the Captain could be found. No cry had been heard at any time during the night. The plank had somehow been pulled back onto the boat yet no one would admit to doing it. The crew split the Captain’s possesion and vast treasure amongst themsleves and elected a new Captain in order to continue their lucrative pirating enterprise. It would remain a mystery never to be solved ... or would it? Human beings are in fact problem and puzzle solvers.

Perhaps the answer to this complexity is in reality quite simple and only made incomprehensible by the musings of the limited capacity of our minds. Is this complexity merely relative i.e. compared to what?

What ending do you deduce for the Captain?  Is the answer found in creativity rather than logic?

I leave it to you “ponder – logians” …

Don’t disappoint me. The reward is grand. Would I lie? (yet another philosophical question)