Naval Commander Uriah P. Levy surveyed the deck of the U.S.S. Vandalia. To his left, a cabin boy scrubbed the floor. Around his neck hung a wooden collar with the word "Thief" boldly scribbled on it. Further along the slippery deck, a mess-hand wore on his back a wooden plaque shaped like a bottle. On it was stenciled, "A Drunkard's Punishment."

A smile of satisfaction crossed Levy's face as he watched his policy of nonviolent punishment at work. "I remember witnessing my first flogging in the U.S. Navy," he thought. "It was cruel, bloody, and degrading to the victim--and it wasn't effective. Sadly, flogging remains the accepted method of discipline in the Navy, but I refuse to accept it".

Aboard Levy's ship, public humiliation replaced the barbarous practice of corporal punishment in the U.S. Navy.

"I'll make my mark," chuckled the commander. "But not literally, of course."

Thanks to Uriah P. Levy, Congress banned flogging in 1850. Throughout his lifetime, Levy identified himself as "an American, a sailor, and a Jew." As an American, he bought and restored Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate. As a sailor, he was the first Jewish commodore in the U.S. Navy. And as a Jew, Levy nailed a mezuzah to the doorpost of his ship's cabin.