The Cat o' nine tails, a multi-tailed instrument of corporal punishment; compare gunner's daughter
Especially harsh floggings were given with it in secondary penal colonies of early colonial Australia, particularly at such places as Norfolk Island (apparently this has 9 leather thongs, each with a lead weight, meant as the ultimate deterrent for hardened life-convicts), Port Arthur and Moreton Bay (now Brisbane).
A mutiny took place among the garrison at Fort Amherst in 1762, resulting in courts-martial at Louisbourg for the main people involved; demotions and hundreds of lashes by cat o'nine tails and one execution.
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It was here that he apparently encountered another character inspiring a short story in Cat O'Nine Tales, Maestro.
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One such prisoner apparently spoken of is the inspiration to one of his short stories from Cat O'Nine Tales, "It Can't Be October Already".
Typha latifolia, a perennial herbaceous plant sometimes known as Cat-o'-nine-tails.