You could get keel-hauled. Or you could get Raisched.

Bos’n Keith Raisch has served aboard Eagle, as he says, “a substantial period of time. Enough so that most officers today know my name.”

And not in a soft, cuddly way.

He is known for hurling obscure questions at cadets, and, when they do no know the answer, barking “GO FIND OUT!”

GFO, for short.

He is proud that cadets have put an acronym to his name: Recruited And Involuntarily Selected for Climbing and Hauling.

That means that if they flunk a pop quiz, or happen to be skylarking around the ship, he’ll find them something “challenging” to do.

Here’s a sample of things you’ll need to know if you run into Bos’n Raisch aboard Eagle:

Q: How many transverse water-tight bulkheads does Eagle have? What and where are they?

GFO: Eight. The ship is sectioned into segments to protect its water-tight integrity, which protects all aboard. A bulkhead is a solid steel wall that runs from side to side and from the keel to the main deck. They are at frames 10, 25, 37, 49, 63, 75, 90 and 107.

“Mariners all over the world stole the idea from the Chinese, who put them in junks,” Raisch said, giving you the opportunity for a bonus point.

Q: How many emergency escape scuttles or trunks does Eagle have? Where are they? And what are they?

GFO: A scuttle is a small circular hatch just big enough for a person to get through should the ship head for the bottom. Scuttles lead from any of the lower compartments where people live or work to the main deck or the weather deck.

Eagle has nine of them.

Q: What’s a sea painter?

GFO: It’s a rope used to position a small boat alongside the ship under the davits so it can be picked up, or to keep the boat alongside when it is launched.

Q: What does is mean to pay the devil?

GFO: In wooden ships, planks have caulking in between them. It was usually cotton and tarred oakum. On a long transit, as the hull would shrink and expand, the caulking would come out or leak.

“The stuff below the water they could not do anything about. The stuff above the water was easy,” Raisch said. “The one at the water’s edge was always very difficult to deal with. It became known as the devil. Replacing the caulking was known as paying the caulk, so for this particular plank, it was known as paying the devil. It was not uncommon to wind up between the devil and the deep blue sea.