Mutiny

THE FLOATING REPUBLIC--G. E. Manwaring and Bonamy Dobree--Ear court, Brace ($3).

Thanks to Authors Nordhoff & Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty and Hollywood's cinema-diversions on the same subject (TIME, Oct. 17, 1932; Nov. 18), that isolated outbreak on one small ship of George Ill's navy looms larger than it should, has been given undeserved credit for causing widespread naval reforms. What really focused British attention on the seamen's plight was a much bigger affair that broke out in home waters eight years after the Bounty mutiny. In The Floating Republic Authors Manwaring & Dobree give a straightforward, factual account of the events which crippled two whole fleets and kept all England buzzing in the spring of 1797.

By the end of the 18th Century it was roughly true that Britannia ruled the waves, but the Britons who made that rule possible were in truth not much better than slaves. Shanghaied by a pressgang, crammed into noisome quarters, half-starved on verminous victuals, paid a pittance, rarely allowed shore liberty, liable to a flogging at an officer's whim, condemned to this servitude for years on end, a British tar's lot was not a happy one. "To be flogged was to be tortured. The first stroke laid on by a brawny boatswain's mate, as hard as he could at the full length of his arm, would always jerk an involuntary 'Ugh!' out of even the most hardened unfortunate 'seized up to' the grating at the gangway; six blows tore the flesh horribly, while after a dozen the back looked like 'so much putrefied liver.' After a time the bones showed through, blood burst from the bitten tongue and lips of the victim, and, expelled from his lungs, dribbled through his nostrils and ears. ... To be flogged through the Fleet to the tune of the 'Rogue's March' meant almost certain death, if not on the spot, a few days later; and on being sentenced to this fiendish punishment, an offender was usually offered the choice of being hanged. A severe flogging smashed a man; he was ill for weeks after it, and rarely recovered his self-respect if he originally had any good in him. The Regulations did certainly lay down that a dozen strokes on the bare back was to be the maximum, but nobody took any notice of the rule; two or three dozen were usual, a hundred common, while the infliction of 300 was by no means rare."

Bad food, low pay and brutal officers were undermining the Fleet's morale, though the Admiralty was woodenly unaware. England was at war with France, Holland and Spain; it was no time to talk about grievances or reforms. When the Admiralty received identical petitions from eleven ships' crews of the Channel Fleet, it did not even acknowledge them. By the time the authorities woke to the fact that trouble was brewing, it was too late. They ordered the Fleet to sea; it stayed where it was. Less mutineers than strikers, the sailors respectfully but firmly took over their ships, put the most unpopular officers ashore. Followed some delicate negotiations between the Admiralty and the sailors' delegates. Finally an agreement was reached. But the promised reforms had to go through Parliament, and the suspicious sailors, irked by the delay, mutinied again. This time there was bloodshed. Thoroughly alarmed, the Government rushed the changes into legal form, got a royal pardon for the reformers. Everything ended happily: many an unpopular officer was relieved or transferred and not a single mutineer was punished.

Fired by the news of the Channel Fleet's feat, the North Sea Fleet at the Nore next tried to organize a strike of its own. Captain William Bligh, once of the Bounty, now of the Director, was one of the first officers to be put ashore. More aimless and violent than the Spithead mutiny, this "floating republic" made the mistake of threatening a Government that had just made all the concessions it felt like making. When the Admiralty tried to starve them out by cutting off their supplies, the mutineers retaliated by trying to blockade the Port of London. Government agents tried to start a counter-mutiny by smuggling thunderous proclamations into the rebellious ships. To this a mutineer tersely replied: "Dam my eyes if I understand your lingo or long Proclimations but in short give us our Due at Once and no more at it, till we go in search of the Rascals the Eneymes of our Country."

Gradually the mutiny, never unanimous, fell apart. "President" Richard Parker of the mutineers and 29 other ringleaders were hanged at the yardarm, nine were flogged, 29 sent to jail. Britannia and Britannia's cat continued to rule the waves.

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