o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

CITIZEN DEAN 323
that he had questionable correspondents in Belfast }
it
And
is interesting to notice that in the hospital at Haslar, a
short time before the mutiny, there had been an assistant
surgeon named Dean, who was commonly called
41
Citizen Dean," on account of his democratic opinions. 2
These are types of the men who were the best qualified
to provoke and organize the Mutinies : men of good
education, who had spent most of their lives on shore,
men who were unused to the roughness and privation of
naval life, and, in many cases, revolutionaries anxious to
spread their political creed among seamen, who were too
loyal to be led into open rebellion, but too ignorant to
question the arguments of their instructors. The difference
in character between the Mutinies at Spithead and
the Nore is probably due to the suppression of these
violent men in the Channel fleet, by delegates of a sober
judgement and a loyal disposition, and their comparatively
strong influence in the Nore fleet, which lasted
until the loyal majority rose in a body against them,
and put an end to the mutiny. 3
1. Cooke to Greville, 10 June.
2. Graham to King, ibid., 22 May. -N.
3. By emphasizing the importance of the quota-men and other lands- )
men as authors of the mutiny, I do not mean to imply that the
landsmen were all disaffected, or that the seamen were all loyal. It
cannot be doubted that many professional seamen were of such an
unruly or impressionable character that they would readily accept the
suggestion of a mutiny, and the principle of the rights of man on
which the mutiny seems to have been based. But they had probably
derived their opinions from landsmen or from books and pamphlets
supplied by persons on shore. The landsmen had had greater opportunities
of imbibing sedition, and it is likely that a larger proportion of
them were disaffected. It may be remarked here that in this discussion
the word seamen may be taken as meaning seamen and marines. The
marines as a whole were not so strongly disposed to mutiny as the
seamen were, because they were not subject to the same grievances, \
but they had a considerable share in both the mutinies and on most \
occasions acted with the seamen. \