o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

;
09
CHAPTER X.
Characteristics of the Mutiny.
It will be well to take advantage of this period of comparative
peace to describe, in a general way, the manner
in which the mutiny was conducted, and the daily routine
of the seamen in these early days of their revolt.
In the
first place we should notice that the disorder in the
beginning seemed much less serious than the outbreak at
Spithead. Only three ships of the line were concerned
in it, 1 together with a few frigates and smaller vessels
and the authorities on shore may well have regarded this
rising as a mere echo of the Spithead mutiny. They
might reasonably expect that Lord Howe's accommodation
with the seamen of Bridport's squadron would
satisfy the fleet at Sheerness, as it satisfied the squadrons
under Curtis and Orde. This fact probably accounts in
some measure for the apparent indifference with which
the Nore mutiny was treated at first. 2 Every one was
waiting to know the result of Lord Howe's dealings at
Spithead, and no one paid any serious attention to the
new disorder which was so plainly a smaller copy of the
other. 3
It is indeed clear enough that the mutineers at the Nore
profited by the example of their " brethren at Spithead."
1. Sandwich, Inflexible and Director.
.2. On 13 May Nepean wrote to Buckner in regard to the outbreak
at the Nore "
: As affairs are now, however, in so favourable a train,
their Lordships hope and trust that a happy termination will be put to
these matters in the course of a few hours" (A.S.M. 137).
3. Among the papers of the Champion is a letter from a seaman of
the Phaeton (no. 4), suggesting the dismissal of officers after the
manner adopted by the Spithead mutineers; and another, from the
captain of the forecastle of the Inflexible, (no. 3), advising the men
of the Champion to " imitate . . . the successful resistance of the fleet
at Spithead."