The opportunities to undermine the ordained order also occurred as the result of the failure of expectations held both by the officers and the lower deck. Both expectancy and role theory stress the importance of the expectations people hold, and the perceptions of those expectations being confirmed, or denied, by experience, in shaping subsequent behaviour. The expectations of both the officers and the men determined their anticipation of what ought to happen and how they were to behave in any given situation. As Joel Hamby noted, prior experience, social group membership, instruction and their own beliefs about a situation help to create the expectations people hold and influence their subsequent behaviour. Factors such as knowledge of the political circumstances in which the mariners and ships functioned (war, peace, or neutrality), and beliefs about the appropriate relationship between officers and men, formed expectations. The seaworthiness of the vessels and the fighting abilities of the ships’ crews helped establish expectations, as did sobriety or drunkenness. If events reinforce expectations as being true, then people will retain those expectations and, most likely, the behaviours which follow from them. Similarly, if events counter the expectations, then the expectations may change along with subsequent behaviour. In the latter instances the wooden world could turn topsy-turvy. Deference might give way to rejection of the legitimacy of authority to dominate, bringing about efforts to negotiate as equals, or leading to desertion, and the outright failure to comply. This chapter explores the creation of ‘disorder’ by contextual conditions that alter the expectations held by people under the following circumstances: the unknown onset of war, shipwreck, defeat, and drunkenness.

The Unknown Coming of War

The following incident highlights the impact of the sudden change from peace to war on a captain and his crew as they unknowingly sailed from one state into the other. As Captain Charles B. Comb, of His Majesty's Brig Bloodhound, approached Cape Henry, he signalled for a pilot to come out and take his vessel up the Chesapeake to Annapolis. The date was 16 July 1812, but since departing England, Comb had not heard the news that the United States had declared war on Britain. The American schooner Corsair France came out with an officer to inform Comb that his ship was now a prize and his crew prisoners of war. The Corsair France escorted the Bloodhound into Norfolk.