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
10 - Reporting the Mutinies in the Provincial Press
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
The naval mutinies of 1797 placed a select number of provincial newspapers at the very forefront of one of the greatest news stories to hit a maritime nation while at war. With hostile invasion fleets seemingly ready to leave the port of Brest and the Texel, the ordinary seamen of the British navy suddenly refused to obey their officers. In one swift move, the nation's first line of defence had been removed.
To report the passing events of the various naval mutinies, the provincial press of the eighteenth century relied primarily upon a series of local correspondents. For the most part, these were readers of those same newspapers who had shown a willingness to provide a brief written account of local events. Normally, these correspondents were submitting news of somewhat less importance. As often as not, those living near naval ports were providing information on the arrival and departure of warships, changes in dockyard procedure and the promotion and movement of various officers. At other times however, they were reduced to the more mundane, sending in reports of local marriages or sudden and unexpected deaths. However, the important point to remember is that none of these correspondents were professional journalists, simply amateurs who were sending in their impressions of particular events. Given a situation in which a random group of self-selected individuals were sending in material that was frequently a product of their own impressions, it is hardly surprising that error, partiality or confusion was often the result.
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- Information
- The Naval Mutinies of 1797Unity and Perseverance, pp. 161 - 178Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011