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A Kingston Court Martial
Feb. 9th, 2011 01:44 pmThere is something about the dispassionate tone of Admiralty documents that does rather inure you to the reality of the events they relate. (Pellew in particular is a master of the concise understatement.) Every so often however something turns up that stops you in your tracks and brings that reality into stark focus.
Last night![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nodbear sent me a transcript of the court martial of twelve men of HM Sloop Ferret, Captain George Cadogan, who where tried for mutiny in Port Royal harbour, Kingston, Jamaica on the 8th of October 1806.
The summary verdict of the court martial reads as follows:
Asnodbear rightly commented, the sentence of hanging in chains in the most conspicuous place sounds positively mediaeval. In contrast, when the mutineers of the notoriously insubordinate ship Impetueux met their inevitable fate at the end of a yard arm in Port Mahon Roads in June 1799, Pellew carefully records in his log that their bodies were "committed to the deep".
It's unclear whether such extreme retribution was common in Kingston or whether it was indicative of the seriousness of the offence. The bloody and brutal Hermione mutiny had taken place on the same station within living memory and it's more than likely that the Commander in Chief had no qualms about making an example of any seamen who attempted to follow the Hermione mutineers' example. However that doesn't make it any less unsettling.
Needless to say this unavoidably calls to mind another mutiny, another Kingston court martial, and the very thought really is too awful to contemplate :/
Sorry, this is a completely grim post. Hopefully I'll be back with something a bit more uplifting later.
Last night
nodbear sent me a transcript of the court martial of twelve men of HM Sloop Ferret, Captain George Cadogan, who where tried for mutiny in Port Royal harbour, Kingston, Jamaica on the 8th of October 1806. The summary verdict of the court martial reads as follows:
"The court is of the opinion that the charges are fully proved against the said Thomas Simpson, Richard Parfrais, John Armstrong, Mark Stalland, John Stanton, Samuel Johnston, John Powell, John Lee, William Whitfield, John Seville, William Kent, but the charges are not proved against John Anderton. Do therefore adjudge the aforementioned are guilty and to be hanged by the neck until dead at the yard arms of such of his majesty's ships and at such time as the Commander in Chief shall think proper to direct and that the bodies of the said William Thomas Simpson, Mark Stalland, John Martin (?), Samuel Johnston, should be afterwards hung in chains in the most conspicuous place the Commander in Chief shall think proper to direct and they are here by severally sentenced to suffer accordingly."
As
nodbear rightly commented, the sentence of hanging in chains in the most conspicuous place sounds positively mediaeval. In contrast, when the mutineers of the notoriously insubordinate ship Impetueux met their inevitable fate at the end of a yard arm in Port Mahon Roads in June 1799, Pellew carefully records in his log that their bodies were "committed to the deep".It's unclear whether such extreme retribution was common in Kingston or whether it was indicative of the seriousness of the offence. The bloody and brutal Hermione mutiny had taken place on the same station within living memory and it's more than likely that the Commander in Chief had no qualms about making an example of any seamen who attempted to follow the Hermione mutineers' example. However that doesn't make it any less unsettling.
Needless to say this unavoidably calls to mind another mutiny, another Kingston court martial, and the very thought really is too awful to contemplate :/
Sorry, this is a completely grim post. Hopefully I'll be back with something a bit more uplifting later.
