Mutiny

1797 The Dark Year of Mutinies

This Naval History continues on from: "Sir John Jervis"

1797, we may recall that this was the dark year of the Mutinies, and Adam Duncan, in command of the North Sea fleet, had had his full share of anxiety in coping with them. For a long time he performed his alloted duty of blockading; keeping the Dutch fleet in port.

The only way he could do this was by using the most desperate of bluffs, showing the enemy his one loyal ship, and by making signals to the imaginary remainder, supposed to be lying just under the horizon.

Fortunately the Dutch lost their golden opportunity, and only succeeded in leaving from port in October, when order had been restored in the British fleet, and the mutines were quelled.

Sir John Jervis

Mutiny and Discipline

During 1797 there was considerable discontent amongst the seamen of the Royal Navy. This discontent manifested itself at the Nore and at Spithead when the greater part of the Channel Fleet rose up against their officers.

These mutinies were not overly violent and the officers were put ashore and the heads of the mutinies established their own order and kept the ships under "committee" control until their collective demands were met.

The mutineers demands ranged from discontent at cruel officers to poor pay and long sea service without shore leave. There were other mutinies throughout the Navy that year.

Folly of the Government

Before we condem the seamen for Treachery we ought to try the Government for folly. It had been warned. As long ago as before 1629, when Sir Henry Mervin, had written these strangely prophetic words:

"My Lord, let not your eye that looks on the public good overlook this [victualling] mischief; for without better order his Majesty will lose the honour of his seas, the love and loyalty of his sailors, and his Royal Navy will droop.

Nor can it be denied that, the seamen were well served by their change-over. From private navies to the Navy of the Crown in 1660. For Parliment, when tried will be found not lacking. Being fully alive to the importance of the seamen in their scheme of things.

Authority immediately raised their wages to nineteen shillings a month, and they paid them punctually, while the Commomwealth Government, differentiating between Able and Ordinary Seamen, paid the later as before, nineteen shillings, and the former twenty-two shillings and sixpence. All was seen to be done and dusted.

This Was for the Moment Adequate and Even Good

But there progress stopped, the Authorities made no further movement on wages until 1797, nearly two-hundred years later.

By which time prices had risen enormously, and what had been generous under Cromwell had become niggardly in the extreme under the third King George.

Pay was then at last raised once more, to a shilling a day for an A.B's and twenty-three and sixpence per month for O.S's; but only because the concessions was wrung from Authority by the famous "Breeze at Spithead."

It was one of the grievances of the most honest mutineers: though, it would seem, poor Jack Tar's grouse was not only that he was underpaid. What hurt his pride was he was being paid less than the private soldier, who had reached the shilling a day mark only recently.

These concessions satisfied the seamen on the whole, but could not even then, be regarded as generous. They barely raised their pay and status again to what they had been in King Charles II's day.

Other Justifiable Grounds for Grievance

But that was not all, there were other pay anomalies which would furnish sufficient reasons to complain, but which were hardly mentioned by the seamen's leaders in 1797.

It had long been an established custom not to pay wages until they were six months overdue, and for ships at sea they were often much more overdue than that, and sometimes even years behind.

Nor until a commission was over and their ship paid off could the seamen step ashore: nor was there any efficient provision for transferring any portion of what was owing to them to their dependents, though, in theory, it could be done after 1758.

Collect Your Wages at Tower Hill, London

Even when the seaman left his ship, he received only a "ticket," not the wages in cash. These could usually be obtained only by a personal visit to the Pay Office on Tower Hill, and not always there.

Tower hill was a far step in those days from Chatham or Portsmouth, let alone Plymouth. The result was an extensive traffic in pay tickets, often at scandalous rates of discount, between seamen and the more-or-less professional "ticket buyers" or scrupulous officers.

Sometimes too, when a man was transferred direct from one commission to another, he never saw the wages due from his first ship: and if he received a ticket for them he could not prossibly cash it except through one of the buying fraternity.

It was all, a conserted swindle, highly developed and already dull from overuse. But whoever might profit, there was never any doubt as to who lost out, it was always the seamen.

The mutinies of 1797 were a typical example of the British character and of the British way of doing things. The first Mutiny at Spithead, which began on 16th April and lasted until 15th May; though in law it was a one-hundred-per-cent mutiny.

A Mutiny The Seamen Saw Necessary

It was a triumph of moderation and common sense, for all the seamen, leaders and their like. And though it seemed to place the country in appauling danger, the danger was deliberately minimised by the seamen.

The seamen themselves had made it perfectly plain that, were the French fleet to put to sea while they were "out," they would instantly place the national good before their own, and be led out to fight.

Mutiny can never be condoned in any Service, but it is impossible not to feel, having regard to both the men's moderation and to the enormity of their grievances, that this mutiny was more excusable than any other.

The Nore Mutiny was Different

This mutiny broke out on 12th May 1797, and lasted nearly five weeks, and was another matter altogether. Here the mutineers had less excuse because their comrades at Spithead had achieved a remedy for the worst of their grievances.

There was also, here, nothing like that remarkable self-restraint and discipline. At the Nore the mutineers landed and made trouble in the neighbouring towns, held-up and looted merchant ships, and practically blocked London.

Their leaders outward behaviour, was insolent and overbearing in the extreme, and some of their demands were impossible, because they were seeking to undermine the power of the established system.

Two causes may account for these differences between the two rebellious outbreaks. It was believed at the time that there was present at Nore a factor largely absent at Spithead.

At Nore it was an almost purely of a social and economic nature: but Politics was suspected, and, in some sort, certainly existed. Indirectly the revolutionary influence was there amongst them.

Rights of Man existsed in 1797

In these islands, even in those days, there lived the formidable movement of the Tom Paine "Rights of Man" school: and from this some of the leaders; and some of their ideas, were recruited.

The uglier turn taken by the second mutiny was probably, as usual on such occasions, more a clash of personalities and selfishness.

Richard Parker, the elected leader of it, and probably some of his unknown associates (many of whom escaped) were by nature more dangerous to society than their counterparts at Spithead.

Parker was not a man of outstanding personality, but he was talented and bad, educated and up against life; a man accustomed to direct, influence and bad leaders. He was no novice to sea- service: he had been an officer, and was dismissed for insubordination.

He had been a schoolmaster ashore, and, after falling into debt, had been redrafted from prison into the Navy. Such a man might prove to be a deadly menace to his comrades and their country.

At the Nore, as at Spithead, the good qualities of the rank and file asserted themselves, and the "Breeze" blew itself out, without ever assuming the proportions of a hurricane.

It Was Not Wholly Bad

It did clear the air, not by the actual concessions made by the Authority at the time, but it made Authority realise that the poor Seaman had a very powerful weapon; if he cared to use it.

Thereafter he was certainly treated with much more respect and consideration which he deserved, obviously no responsible body would want a repetition of the "breeze." This was the true and lasting importance of that famous incident; for it secured a straight deal for the Seamen.

Other Notable Mutinies

HMS Hermione and HMS Marie Antoinette both on the Jamaica station were overrun by mutineers. These mutinies resulted in the crews killing their officers and taking their ships into enemy held ports.

Jervis had the reputation as a disciplinarian and put in place a new system that would ensure that the men in the Mediterranean fleet did not mutiny. To begin with the admiral wrote a new set of Standing Orders.

For example, Jervis divided the seamen and marines and berthed the two separately putting the marines between the officers aft and the men forward. Thus he created an effective barrier between officers and the potentially unruly crews.

Jervis discouraged any conversation in Irish though he did not ban it. He ordered the marine detachments to be paraded every morning and, if there was a band available, for "God save the King" to be played.

The marine detachment was then to remain armed at all times. Marines and soldiers in some ships, were also excused from duties in regard to the general running of the ship.

In order to keep his crews active and to ensure that the Spanish did not perceive that there might be discontent in the fleet, Jervis ordered the nightly bombardment of Cadiz in his own words to "Divert the animal."

The Admiral Isolated His Ships

Jervis kept his ships apart from one another to minimise collusion and the opportunities the men might have to band together in mutiny.

Earl St Vincent did ensure, however, that the men under his command were cared for. When the stock of tobacco ran low the Admiral ensured that the supply was renewed from his own funds.

When the postmaster in Lisbon detained the letters and packets arriving from England for the men, Jervis set up a post office aboard his flagship HMS Ville de Paris to receive and distribute all the letters that arrived for both seamen, marines and officers.

John Jervis strictly adhered to the Articles of War and individual regulations that he had written for his fleet. Any infraction was dealt with harshly and he was renowned for treating both officers and seamen with the same harsh discipline.

As an example

One officer who allowed his boats crew to plunder a fishing boat was placed before a court martial and it was ordered that he be: "degraded from the rank to that of Midshipman in the most ignominious manner by having his uniform stripped from his back on the quarter deck of the ship. Before the whole ship's company and to be further disposed of as the Commander-in-chief shall direct."

Usually, to forfeit his pay now due to him for his services on board any ship of his Majesty's service and to be rendered incapable of ever serving as an Officer or a Petty Officer in any of His Majesty's ships.

Jervis later personally directed that the midshipman should have his head shaved, a notice hung around his neck describing his crime and that he should be solely responsible for the cleaning of the head (naval term for the communal toilets situated at the bows of wooden ships) until further notice.

Other Incidents

Earl St Vincent instructed that two men aboard HMS St. George who were tried for mutiny on a Saturday, found guilty, to be, and were executed on Sunday.

After the men were executed, Admiral Charles Thompson raised an objection to formal executions on the Sabbath and Jervis wrote to the Board of Admiralty demanding Thompson's removal or accepting his resignation.

The Board relieved Thompson. On 9th July 1797, Nelson wrote to Jervis congratulating him in his resolve and wholeheartedly supporting his decision to execute the men on a Sunday.

Jervis could also be exceptionally kind when he felt that the situation warranted it. One day, whilst the fleet was becalmed and the summer heat became intolerable the men of the flagship were ordered to bathe.

The men leapt over the side to swim in a sail that had been lowered over the side and the captain of one of the tops jumped in wearing his trousers.

In one of the pockets he had his prize money and back pay that he had been saving for many years. The bank notes were soon destroyed and when the man came aboard and discovered what had happened he began to weep.

The Admiral saw the man and asked the problem. One of his officers told him and St Vincent went to his cabin. When he returned he had the crew mustered and called the man forward.

"Roger Odell you are convicted, Sir, by your own appearance of tarnishing the British oak with tears. What have you to say in your defence, and why you should not receive what you deserve?"

The man told him of his troubles and St Vincent replied "Roger Odell you are one of the best men in this ship you are moreover a captain of a top and in my life. I never saw a man behave himself better in battle than you did in the Victory in the action with the Spanish fleet.

To show therefore that your Commander-in-chief will never pass over merit wheresoever he may find it. There is your money Sir!" The Earl produced £70 of his own money and presented it to the dumbstruck sailor, "but no more tears mind," "no more tears Sir," was his answer.

Nelson returned to the Mediterranean

St Vincent detached Nelson to pursue Napoleon in his invasion of Egypt. Rear-Admiral Sir John Orde who was senior to Nelson complained publicly and bitterly about what he considered a personal slight.

Jervis ordered Orde home. Orde requested that he be court-martialled in order that he might have the opportunity to clear his name. The Board refused.

Orde then requested that St Vincent be brought before a court-martial. Again, the Board refused. The Board censured Jervis for not having supported his subordinates.

Orde later challenged the ageing admiral to a duel. The challenge became public knowledge and the king ordered Jervis to decline. Before the challenge was formally declined, Orde wrote to the Board to inform them that he had withdrawn it.

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They Refused To Execute A Man

When the men aboard the Marlborough refused to execute a man for mutinous behaviour and their captain did nothing about it. The Earl threatened the captain with replacement and had boats from the rest of the fleet armed with carronades surround the Marlborough; he then threatened to sink the ship if his orders were not carried out.

The man was duly executed. St Vincent turned to an officer beside him watching the mutineer hanging from the yard arm and said: "Discipline is preserved, Sir!"

The continuation of this Naval History will be: "Prelude to War"

Mutiny Prelude to War

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