o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

268
CHAPTER XIX.
Discipline.
A third serious grievance was the harsh conduct of
some of the officers. It was not mentioned in the demands
of the Spithead mutineers because the trouble was almost
entirely in administration, and the remedy was not to be
found in Acts of Parliament and Orders in Council. 1 But
although the complaint did not appear in the petitions it
was very strongly urged by the seamen, in their dealings
with the Admiralty, with Bridport and with Howe; and
this grievance fills a larger space than any other in the
official documents relating to the Spithead mutiny.
The
extent of the grievance varied greatly on the different
ships. In some cases the discipline was so mild that
laziness and other faults were at a premium; the slack
men went unpunished, and the burden of the ship's duty
fell on the steady men who were willing to do the work. 2
On some ships—and these were the least troubled by
mutiny— the officers were strict enough to keep the
respect, and generous enough to win the affection of their
crews. But there is no doubt that many officers, in every
1. The Nore mutineers were unwise enough to demand that the
Articles of War should be amended. (No. 8 of the first demands : see
Ann. Keg., State Papers, p. 245; and above, p. 141 note). The
punishments prescribed in some of the Articles were certainly very
severe, but the government were not prepared to make the reforms
at the instance of the seamen. In the last paper of demands, conveyed
by Captain Knight on 10 June, it was proposed that the officers
proscribed by the crews should be removed (Daniel Price's Note-Book,
no. 7, A.S.M. 137). The mutineers at Spithead acted much more wisely
in making the removal of officers a matter of private negotiation.
2. See Ctinningham, p. 112. It is noticeable that the mutiny was
particularly violent on some of the worst-disciplined ships {e.g., Que^n
Charlotte at Spithead, Monmouth and Montague at the Nore), because
the men had not learnt, or had lost, the habit of obedience.