SOME FAMOUS NAVAL MUTINIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 591, 24 July 1933, Page 7

SOME FAMOUS NAVAL MUTINIES

Affairs Both Tragie And Comic Have Occurred In Navies Of Various Coimtries

MIJTINY is an ugly word with aa ugly sound, and the fact that it is punishable by death makes it uglier still. But tbere are occasions when it has a comic side. The recent adventure of the Dutoh cruiser D© Zeven Provincien is almost an ex^&ct parallel of the mutiny in the Brazilian dreadnougbt, Sao Paulo, in 1924. On November 4 of that year the two Brazilian capital sbips, Sao Paulo and Minas Geraea, were at anchor in Rio de Janeiro barbour. During the absence ashore of the senior officers five secondlieutenants of the Sao Paulo gained the support of the crew, boisted a red flag, and announced that they were joining a revolutionary party. The five conspirators, most of them in their teens, then sat down and concocted a solemn "ultimatum" to the crew of the Minas Geraes, ordering them to join the r evolution within 10 minutes; and this being ignored they fired a few parting shots at the forts of Ric de Janeiro and put to sea. The end of this mutiny came quickly. After about four days at_ sea the Sao Paulo arrived at Monte Video. The insurgents went ashore, and the Minas Geraes, which had been chasing her, took the battleship back to Rio. ' . Most naval mutinies have been due in the first place to discontent about the food served to the lower deck. Intolerable conditions of this kin,d caused the most famous mutinies in. British naval history — those at Spithead and the Nore in 1797, writes Montague Smith in the "Daily Mail." The Spithead mutiny was ended by concession. That at the Nore, which followed, was far more serious. It spread to the whole of Admiral Duncan's fleet, and for a time the mouth of the Thames was actually blockaded by 26 insurgent ships. But by this time the Spithead or Channel Fleet had returned to duty. The mutinous ships of the Nore wero vigorously dealt with. One by on© the crews surrendered, and the arrest of the ringleader, one Riohard Parker, who had styled himself "Admiral," fci

the Sandwich, ended the outbreak. For one naval mutiny at least women were mainly responsible. This was the famous case of H.M.S. Bounty, which occurred in 1789. A manuscript written by John Fryer, the ship's sailing master, describing the whole. affair, was sold at Sotheby's last July.

The captaln o£ this shifi, Williain Bligh, wafl knowa as "Bread-fruit Blxgh. He had cQscovered that seatnen could be fod on bread-fruit, and was sent with the Bounty to Tahiti 4n ghe Pacifio to fetch a cargo of bread^iilt trees wlilchi it was int eilded to plant and acclimatise in the West Indles. But hie crew, when ashore. founa fiirtatloh under the hreftdfj£ru& tre©e ifkOie pieasant than diggifig £hem ap.

After a short while at .sea on the homeward voyage they decided to return to Tahiti, which they did, after first putting Captain Bligh and nine* teen others into a small boat, and casting them adrift in the PacifiG. The marooned men eventually reached Timor, in the East Indies, after a voyage of 4000 miles. The mutineers, with their native sweethearts, founded the first colony on the Pitcairn Islands. Another famous British naval mutiny was that in the frigate Hermione. This, like the Nore trouble, also occurred in 1797. It was, due to the notorious cruelty of the commanding officer, Captain Pigot, one of whose tricks ■ was to flog the last sailor down after furling sails with the idea of encouraging rapidity. Eventually, in

the haste thus engenderad two seatnen fell on deck and were killed. The crew then took possession, "court-martialled" Oaptain Pigot and his officers, executed them, and sailed the Hermoine to surfender to Spain in a South American port. The frigate was recovered by the British Navy two years later in the j^enezuelan barbour of Fuerto Oabelio, and subseTinently becam© kaowa hs the Retribution.