Anyone familiar
with
British
naval history has probably come across the frigate Hermione.
The bloodiest mutiny occurred aboard this vessel in
October 1797. Her captain, Hugh Pigot, might have been the
cruelest
captain to
serve in the Royal Navy. The mutiny was a direct outcome
of the brutal
discipline that he meted out to the men under his command.
The
mutineers
murdered him and nine of his officers, then sailed the Hermione to an island in the Spanish Main
and gifted the enemy with
the ship. Those involved in the mutiny thought they were
finally free
of the
tyranny that had oppressed them, but they didn’t count on
the ruthless
and
dogged pursuit the British undertook to bring the men to
justice and to
recapture the frigate.
The author covers the people
and events leading up to the mutiny, as well as its
aftermath in
twenty-eight
chapters. The book includes five appendices (The Effect of
a Flogging,
Floggings
ordered by Captain Wilkinson in the Hermione,
Floggings ordered by Captain Pigot in the Success,
The Men Active in the Mutiny, and Recorded trials for
mutiny in the
Royal Navy
for 1798), notes and bibliography, and an index. Various
types of
illustrations
accompany the text. Aside from the mutiny, the book also
mentions quite
a few
privateer incidents involving the Hermione.
Pope, who has written several
notable nautical novels, is also a maritime historian. He
first came
across a
brief reference to the mutiny in 1950. But this is “the
first detailed
story of
the bloodiest mutiny that ever occurred in a ship of the
Royal Navy,
and it is
written entirely from contemporary official and private
documents.”
(11) In
deciding to investigate the incident at greater length, he
wanted to
answer the
question: “If Pigot was cruel . . . why did the crew stand
Pigot’s
tyranny for
so long and then suddenly mutiny?” (12) Nor did the author
rely solely
on
British documents. He also consulted numerous Spanish
resources, which
enabled
him to successfully provide nearly a minute-by-minute
reconstruction
through
the words of the men who knew of, participated in, or
endured the
mutiny. To
help determine why Pigot and others did what they did, he
also
consulted with a
psychiatrist to provide readers with the reason or motive
behind what
occurred.
Interesting facts and the
men’s accounts of what transpired make this a compelling
read. At
times, Pope
steps back from the story to explain certain aspects so
that the reader
better
appreciates what happens. For example, significant space
is given to
flogging
with the cat-o’-nine tails, detailing not only what it is,
what it felt
like to
endure this punishment, and how it compared to the cat
used in the army
and
punishments meted out to civilians ashore, but also how
Pigot used this
punishment and the inequity with which various offenders
suffered the
lash.
Equally telling and illuminating in the presentation is a)
why the navy
continued to pursue and punish the mutineers a decade
after the mutiny
and
murders, for this incident occurred the same year as those
at Spithead
and the
Nore; and b) how the British navy and the Admiralty
learned of the
mutiny
aboard the frigate.
Review Copyrighted ©2013
Cindy Vallar
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Pirates
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