While speaking to the Inuit girl Mr. Goodsir mentions to her that he was told the Inuit call the land they are in Nunavut. The native residents of the area have referred to the northern areas of Canada as Nunavut for centuries, likely millennia, though since 1870 that area was called the Northwest Territories by the government of Canada. In 1999 the Northwest Territories were divided, with the northeastern parts being renamed Nunavut in honor of the native Inuits long standing claim to the land. Nunavut is now the largest territory in Canada being 1,750,000 km2 (680,000 sq mi) in area, making roughly the same size as Mexico, though it is one of the most remote and sparsely populated areas in the world with a population of only 35,944 according to the 2016 census.
The doctor says he'll give a sailor suffering from a headache a shot of Mandragora. Mandragora plants, better known as mandrakes, contain several active tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine, hyoscine, cuscohygrine, apoatropine and belladonnine. While all of these substances are known today to be very toxic they used to be used in traditional medicine. They were used for a number of different things including as a emetic (induced vomiting), sedative and a painkiller but are no longer used due to its toxic effects. Common side effects of these substances are blurred vision, dilation of the pupils, dryness of the mouth, difficulty in urinating, dizziness, headache, vomiting, blushing, rapid heart rate and hallucinations. For these reasons Mandragora fell out of use as a sedative and a painkiller in the mid 19th century after morphine was discovered to have far better analgesic properties and to be much safer.
The title refers to some corporal punishment meted out to rebellious sailors. Normally this involves flogging to the back but, as a boy, means flogging on exposed bare buttocks.
David Walmsley (Sgt. Solomon Tozer) & Adam Nagaitis (Cornelius Hickey) also worked together on Banished (2015) as William Stubbins & Private Buckley respectively.