o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

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274 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
they might have some protection from the tyranny of the
officers. i Although these demands were impolitic, they
served to show that the grievance of harsh discipline was
not confined to the Channel fleet. Further evidence is
supplied by the author of the song, "All hail, brother
Seamen," in the couplet :
Kind Providence long looked with pity at last
For to see honest Jack so shamefully thrashed
and in his description of the " crewel intentions " of the
officers "to scourge when they please." 2 And some
credit may be given to the statement of the revolutionary,
whose sayings were reported to the Admiralty, that
seamen were punished for singing songs that seemed to
an officer likely to dishearten the crew ;—although it may
be supposed that it was rather in the quality of a
patrician than in the capacity of a lictor that the " prig of
an officer " incurred the censure of this advanced
democrat. 3
In addition to their general dislike of despotic officers,
the seamen had conceived a special objection to the
surgeons. The force of the objection can easily be
understood when it is remembered that sickness was very
common in the navy, because of the unhealthy conditions
of life, and that in times of sickness men are peculiarly
sensible of neglect or ill-treatment. The seamen at
Spithead felt
this grievance so keenly that they made it
the subject of a special article of their demands. It
appears that several of the surgeons in the Channel fleet,
and probably in other fleets as well, were guilty of
neglecting or ill-treating the sick men, and of embezzling
or diverting from their proper use the provisions and
1. Clause 8 in the Address to the Nation (Papers of the Bepulse,
no. 20, A.S.I. 727, C 370a).
2. Papers of the Repulse, no. 29.
3. A.S.I. 3974 (Intelligence), 11 June. These reports are quoted
below, Appendix A, p. 385.