Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- About the Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction, Analysis and Interpretation
- 1 Spithead Mutiny: Introduction
- 2 The Delegates: A Radical Tradition
- 3 What Really Happened On Board HMS London?
- 4 The Spirit of Kempenfeldt
- 5 Voices from the Lower Deck: Petitions on the Conduct of Naval Officers during the 1797 Mutinies
- 6 Crew Management and Mutiny: The Case of Minerve, 1796–1802
- 7 The 1797 Mutinies in the Channel Fleet: A Foreign–Inspired Revolutionary Movement?
- 8 The Nore Mutiny: Introduction
- 9 The East Coast Mutinies: May–June 1797
- 10 Reporting the Mutinies in the Provincial Press
- 11 A Floating Republic? Conspiracy Theory and the Nore Mutiny of 1797
- 12 Lower Deck Life in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
- 13 ‘Launched into Eternity’ Admiralty Retribution or the Restoration of Discipline?
- 14 Discipline, Desertion and Death: HMS Trent 1796–1803
- 15 ‘We went out with Admiral Duncan, we came back without him’: Mutiny and the North Sea Squadron
- 16 The Influence of 1797 upon the Nereide Mutiny of 1809
- Select Bibliography
- Index
3 - What Really Happened On Board HMS London?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- About the Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction, Analysis and Interpretation
- 1 Spithead Mutiny: Introduction
- 2 The Delegates: A Radical Tradition
- 3 What Really Happened On Board HMS London?
- 4 The Spirit of Kempenfeldt
- 5 Voices from the Lower Deck: Petitions on the Conduct of Naval Officers during the 1797 Mutinies
- 6 Crew Management and Mutiny: The Case of Minerve, 1796–1802
- 7 The 1797 Mutinies in the Channel Fleet: A Foreign–Inspired Revolutionary Movement?
- 8 The Nore Mutiny: Introduction
- 9 The East Coast Mutinies: May–June 1797
- 10 Reporting the Mutinies in the Provincial Press
- 11 A Floating Republic? Conspiracy Theory and the Nore Mutiny of 1797
- 12 Lower Deck Life in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
- 13 ‘Launched into Eternity’ Admiralty Retribution or the Restoration of Discipline?
- 14 Discipline, Desertion and Death: HMS Trent 1796–1803
- 15 ‘We went out with Admiral Duncan, we came back without him’: Mutiny and the North Sea Squadron
- 16 The Influence of 1797 upon the Nereide Mutiny of 1809
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 7 May 1797, when nearly everyone assumed the recent discontents had been amicably settled, a new disturbance broke out in the Channel Fleet. Those in government insisted it was the result of misrepresentations of parliamentary debates in the London newspapers. Those in opposition argued this second mutiny was caused by ministerial delays in confirming the promised wage increase. In truth, there was no second mutiny. From 16 April the men of the Channel Fleet insisted they would not weigh anchor, until an Act of Parliament confirming their pay increase was passed and the King's pardon was secured.
Until the afternoon of 7 May, the disturbance could be (and was) accurately described as a ‘discontent’ or a ‘spirit of unwillingness’. There was no violence: all courtesies were extended and, with one obvious exception, all orders were obeyed. All this changed when the delegates of the fleet rowed from St Helen's to Spithead, where they sought permission to meet in convention on board HMS London. Believing he was acting on Admiralty instructions to maintain discipline and prevent mutinous assemblies, Vice Admiral Sir John Colpoys refused permission to board. What happened next has been debated for two hundred years. While the episode is well documented, few of the accounts agree. The facts are reasonably clear:
Vice Admiral Colpoys's efforts to maintain discipline failed.
A heated exchange of words escalated into a heated exchange of bullets.
Colpoys and his supporters were overpowered, confined and nearly hanged.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Naval Mutinies of 1797Unity and Perseverance, pp. 61 - 78Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011