It was hardly possible for human beings to live contentedly under the iron regulations of a man-of-war. One has but to read the books left to us by the sailors to realise the peculiar horror of the life between-decks. Cooped up there, like sardines in a tin, were several hundreds of men, gathered by force and kept together by brutality. A lower-deck was the home of every vice, every baseness, and every misery. The life lived there was something like the life of the negro slave who happened to be housed in a gaol. It is not strange that the men sometimes revolted, and broke out in open mutiny in order to obtain redress. The story of the mutiny of the Bounty, in which the men were “hazed” into turning their obnoxious officers adrift in an open boat, is well known. The stories of the mutinies at the Nore and at Spithead are also familiar. The seamen concerned in these latter mutinies have been held up for execration, but we would ask the indignant reader to learn something of the sufferings which prompted them, and of the temperate and manly way in which they made their wants known. They asked for a slight increase of pay, amounting to about threepence a day for each man, so that they might be able to support their wives and families. They asked for an occasional day ashore; for fresh vegetables when in port; for better food, and for more humane treatment for their wounded. They also asked that they might be paid in cash instead of by ticket, and that the pay of the wounded might not be stopped while they lay in their hammocks under the surgeon’s hands. They had suffered much from the treatment of some of their officers, but their attitude towards these men was singularly humane. They towed one brutal lieutenant ashore on a grating, and they very nearly hanged a marine officer for firing on a boat-load of delegates. With these exceptions they acted throughout with a moderation as praiseworthy as it was astonishing. They were less temperate aboard H.M.S. Hermione, a 32-gun frigate, commanded by Captain Hugh Pigot, the son of an admiral. Captain Pigot was one of the most tyrannical and cruel officers who ever held command. He maddened his crew by repeated acts of cruelty, which culminated at last off the South American coast. One quiet afternoon he drilled his topmen at reefing top-sails. While the men were doing their best, “lighting out,” and “passing earrings,” he called out to the men on the mizzen top-sail-yard that he would flog the last man down. In their hurry down from aloft two of the men fell on to the deck at the captain’s feet, breaking all the bones in their bodies. His remark on this occasion was: “Heave those lubbers overboard!” That night the crew rose in open mutiny. They broke into the cabin, and stabbed Captain Pigot with repeated stabs, so that he died. They killed a number of the lesser officers, and turned several others adrift in a boat. They then sailed the Hermione into La Guayra, and handed her over to the Spanish authorities. She was captured in Puerto Cabello a couple of years later, by the boats of H.M.S. Surprise. Many of the mutineers were afterwards apprehended, and hanged.
Hanging was the usual end of a mutineer. Mutiny, being the one unpardonable sin in a sailor, was treated with far less mercy than desertion, or attempted desertion. The mutiny at the Nore[27] sent a considerable number of sailors to the yard-arm, and lesser mutinies were no less severely punished. A man who struck an officer was fairly certain to be hanged or flogged through the fleet. A man who raised a disturbance or headed any open rebellion, however trivial, was certain to be put to death. On one ship some sailors were taken in the act of violating the Twenty-Ninth Article of War. They were condemned to be punished publicly. Their shipmates, eager for the honour of the ship, begged that the sentence might not be carried out, lest the crew should be hooted at throughout the fleet. On their request being refused, they at once broke out into a noisy disturbance on the lower-deck. Their officers ran down and secured the ringleaders, drove the remainder on deck, and promptly court-martialled and hanged the offenders. At the cessation of hostilities in 1802 many of the sailors were dissatisfied with the orders relating to paying-off. Some ships stationed in the west were ordered to be paid off in London. Others were ordered off on some short cruise, which kept the sailors from joining the many merchant-ships then fitting out after the winter in port. The ringleaders of these little mutinies were hanged, though the occasion surely warranted a slighter punishment.
Many of our sailors deserted to the French, Spanish, and American services, where the routine was a little less severe, and the pay no worse. Those who were taken in foreign ships of war were invariably hanged at the fore yard-arm.
We have mentioned the narrow pendant, the long banner, with a red St George’s cross on a white ground, and long red swallow-tail, which captains hoisted at the main-topgallant masthead, on placing a ship in commission. We now add a few words about some of the other flags and colours in use in the navy. The Royal Standard, which need not be described, was worn at the main-topgallant masthead of those ships which carried a member of the Royal Family. A ship which carried the Lord High Admiral or his Commissioners flew the Admiralty flag (a square red flag, with a golden anchor and cable in its centre) at the same place. An admiral of the fleet flew the Union Jack at the main-topgallant masthead of his own ship. An admiral of the white, or vice-admiral, flew the St George’s banner at his fore-topgallant masthead. An admiral of the blue, or rear-admiral, flew a square blue flag at his mizzen-topgallant masthead. A commodore, or senior captain of the first class, flew a broad red swallow-tailed pendant at his main-topgallant masthead. If another commodore senior to him were in company he flew a white broad pendant marked with a red St George’s cross. A commodore of the second class flew a blue broad pendant, unless a senior captain were sailing in company.
All ships in commission wore a red, white or blue ensign at the mizzen peak, according to the flag of the admiral under whom they sailed. They also carried a small Union Jack at the end of the bowsprit on a flagstaff above the spritsail-yard.
Flag officers had certain distinctive boat flags which they flew in the bows of their boats when they pulled ashore. There were also a number of coloured flags and pendants in use for signalling. The Union Jack was also used for signalling on certain important occasions, such as the holding of a court-martial.
The Royal Standard, Admiralty flag, admirals’ flags, and commodores’ broad pendants were entitled to salutes of guns, varying in number from twenty-one guns (in the case of the first named) to nine (in the case of a second-class commodore). The numbers of guns fired in salute were always odd, following an ancient custom, not now explicable. Ambassadors, consuls, foreign governors, and dukes were also saluted by guns. A salute was fired quickly, with an interval of about six seconds between each gun.
Merchant-ships, both English and foreign, were expected to lower their top-sails, or to let fly their topgallant sheets, when passing a British man-of-war. This old custom is now nearly obsolete, but the present writer has seen the master of a schooner lowering his top-sail in salute to a cruiser.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] The mutiny at Spithead—a far more serious matter than the mutiny at the Nore—was managed with such skill, and such temperance, that the King extended his pardon to the ringleaders. At the Nore the sailors were thought to have been the tools of the Radical party, and an example was made of Parker and his accomplices.