Serving upon a man ‘o war was not easy. Life was hard and so was the punishment. For any act of insubordination, including being lazy, a sailor would be strapped down and lashed upon the back, depending upon the severity of the charges. In some cases, an individual, if spotted or marked, would be lashed over their expected sentence. Some ships used a frayed piece of rope as a lash, which cut just as deeply as would a bull whip. As you can see, Athrun was lashed across the back several times. Due to the number of marks, it may have been a rather severe act.
Also, as a cruel irony that I affiliated into this picture is who it is that delivers the blows upon Athrun’s back. Who better to carry out such a sentence than Riku from Kingdom Hearts. For those of you familiar with my fanfic “The Third Epic,” Riku was the one who suffered the lash under General Ameba, tied to a whipping post and struck repeatedly. But now, being a hand upon a man ‘o war, it is Riku who does the inflicting. It just goes to show that cruelty can spawn more cruelty. Those who are abusive become abusive themselves. Also, if Riku didn’t carry out with the captain’s orders, he too would have suffered the same punishment. But you can tell from his darkened eyes, inflicting pain was not at all disturbing to him.