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
5 - Voices from the Lower Deck: Petitions on the Conduct of Naval Officers during the 1797 Mutinies
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
Numerous petitions were written by individual seamen and whole ships' companies before and during the mutinies in 1797. They offer a rare glimpse of the ordinary seaman's opinions on discipline and punishment, as well as on the conduct of naval officers. This chapter will concentrate on the petitions submitted by the ships at Spithead in April and May 1797.
In the eighteenth-century navy, if the ship's company had grievances it was customary to bring them to the captain's attention by coming on to the quarterdeck or by putting them in writing. In most cases, the captain would then forward the letter of complaint through the commander-in-chief of the station to the Admiralty. If the captain refused to do so, or was himself mentioned in the complaint, the seamen sent it directly to the commanding admiral or to the Admiralty Commissioners in London. On receiving a petition the Admiralty would invariably order the senior flag officer of the station to conduct an inquiry. He in turn would despatch two or three junior flag officers or senior captains who would question the officers separately, examine the ship's books for excessive use of punishments, and summon the ship's company as a whole to ask their views. Sometimes the complaints were reported to be ill-founded or malicious because no one had come forward to give evidence. It is easy to be cynical about the willingness of ratings to expose themselves by complaining in public against their officers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Naval Mutinies of 1797Unity and Perseverance, pp. 98 - 106Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011