J.G.Bullocke - Sailors' Rebellion

This turned out to be a fascinating Christmas gift. Published in 1938 it is a study of episodes of 17th and 18th century sailors mutinies. Its an eclectic mix of stories, as not all of them would be considered "rebellion from below" as radicals today might describe events were crews rose up against their officers. I have a vague recollection that somewhere Leon Trotsky wrote that mutinies on ships were different to those by soldiers as the experience on ship was much more like a factory. It is certainly true that in many of these stories there are events that make the reader see the shipboard experience as like that of a huge factory, but one from which there's no escape. Discipline, living conditions, food and wages were appalling on these English naval vessels and discontent must have simmered constantly.

J.G.Bullocke was most concerned with trying to understand the origins of mutiny. In some of these accounts he simply sees rebellion as natural to the "motley crew" of sailors. In others he goes the other way and puts the blame solely on the nature of the commanding officer whose brutality and unbending disciplinary ways force the crew into open resistance. 

While not all of the mutinies are "from below", they all exhibit elements of class conflict. The first account, that of the rebellion of Admiral Benbow's captains, is perhaps the most startling. Benbow as gone down in history as a brave seaman. Yet the battle where he won his spurs, and lost a leg, was marked by the refusal of the captains of other ships to press home the fight against enemy ships. The resultant court-martial was infamous, and several were executed. Yet one fascinating aspect to this was what Bullocke describes as the dislike the other captains had for Benbow, a so called "tarpaulin" of "humble" birth who had risen from the ranks and was not a gentleman. By contrast the gentleman "was a courtier, jobbed into a command in the Navy by influential friends. He detested the rough manners of the regular seaman officer and tried to introduce into the Navy something of the more civilised demeanour he had learnt at the Court."

Benbow's elevation to the status of hero however belays some of the reality of his captaincies. He was a hard disciplinarian and happy to break the rules, the governor of Jamaica writing in 1699, that only the seamen on Rear-Admiral Benbow's ships die very fast, to supply which he impresses not only from the Merchant ships but also our people of the country and exercises his authority as if there were no other here". Benbow was also known for his punishments of sailors and Bullocke says "wherever he went trouble broke out". 

Something similar is true of Captain Bligh, who seemed to have been more willing to look after his men, but equally inflexible in command. The Mutiny on the Bounty is a major part of Bullocke's book. Here the captain isn't entirely at fault, but more to blame are the attractions (barely hinted at by the chaste Bullocke) of the island of Tahiti. Given the conditions onboard ship it seems impossible that sailors would not rebel. But of greater fascination to me here was the violent retribution that the British government served up to the mutinous sailors many years later. By then Bligh was off elsewhere and causing rebellion again.

But the greatest mutiny - the mass mutiny of naval ships at Spithead and Nore in 1797 are perhaps the most interesting. Here the entire fleet raised the red flag, elected delegates to a central leadership and placed significant demands about pay and conditions, including issues like leave and press ganging on the Admiralty. Bullocke is at great pains to argue that Spithead was not influenced by the French Revolution and "Jacobite" radicals, but that Nore was - at least in the form of Richard Parker, who was elected "President of the Fleet". Bullocke argues that Parker was the embodiment of radical ideas, implying that the rest of the sailors were somewhat unwitting followers. Nonetheless even this crude retelling of the story is fascinating and quite inspiring. No blood was spilt by the mutineers, though the retribution against Parker and others was bloody. No wonder then that a few months later when the Hermione rebelled, the crew finished off the officers.

Bullocke's book is a breathless and fascinating telling of neglected history of rebellion at sea. It's a reminder that British sea power was won not just in defeating other European powers, but also in defeating its own crews - men who fought at Trafalgar and everywhere else on rotten rations, low pay and under threat of violent discipline.

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