History’s Bloodiest Mutiny
The story of a British frigate, her crew’s bloodthirsty uprising and the Royal Navy’s revenge
The story of the HMS Hermione and its violent uprising
“During the first hour, no less than 10 of the officers were stabbed and thrown over the side of the ship”
Stories of the sea continue to fascinate young and old alike. From tales of sinister pirates to epic naval battles, there’s few who don’t enjoy a good old-fashioned nautical romp. One particular event however, which took place on the HMS Hermione in 1782, still shocks, first due to it’s sheer brutality and secondly due to the daring rescue mission. Now author Angus Konstam, who specialises in pirates and tales of hijinks on the sea, has decided to retell this grand old story in his new book Mutiny On The Spanish Main.
Why did the crew of the HMS Hermione mutiny?
The frigate HMS Hermione had been sent out to the Caribbean at the start of the war against France and was there for three years before Captain Pigot came on board. He’d been the commander of a frigate called the Success but he had a penchant for flogging his crew. The Hermione’s crew were happy because they’d got rid of their previous captain, Captain Wilkinson, who had a cruel reputation, but little did they know that his replacement was going to be much, much worse. Captain Pigot began by bringing from his old ship a number of officers who were really his favourites, these were all given loads of money and were allowed ashore but the rest weren’t. Pigot was also excessively beating his crew but two incidents in particular were really the catalyst for the whole mutiny. First a midshipman, a junior officer, was flogged in front of the crew for answering back to the captain. You don’t flog an officer, it’s not done and it was seen as a huge outrage. Less than a week later the ship was in a squall in between what’s now Dominica on one side and Puerto Rico on the other. The captain was yelling at the crew that they weren’t taking the sails in fast enough to stop them being ripped by the storm. As a result he threatened that he would flog the last man down. This started a panic, causing three men to fall to their deaths. Showing no respect, the captain ordered the bodies to be thrown over the side and the crew were horrified at this.
What happened during the mutiny itself?
A couple of days after the bodies were thrown overboard, the crew finally decided to act. One evening some of them broke into the spirits store, got drunk on rum and stole weapons. Shortly after, the marine sentry guarding the captain’s cabin was knocked unconscious and the mob cut through the door with axes. Captain Pigot grabbed a small dagger, slashed at his attackers once and was then stabbed repeatedly. Meanwhile a number of the crew got in a fight with the head officer, stabbing him and throwing his body overboard. Back in the captain’s cabin, Pigot was dragging himself to his feet when a chap called David Forester, a teenager, delivered the fatal blow. The whole thing took no more than about eight minutes. Now the crew had to establish control and during the first hour no less than 10 of the officers were stabbed and thrown over the side of the ship. It was a pretty horrific evening!
After the mutiny, how did HMS Hermione then become the Spanish San Cecilia?
The decision was made by the crew to sail the ship to a Spanish port and hand her over. Remember this is a frigate, a 32-gun frigate, a useful addition to a naval arsenal. So now they’re not only guilty of mutiny but of treason as well. They approached Venezuela, which was partly a Spanish naval base, and went in under white flags. The mutineers appointed an experienced seaman called William Turner to negotiate with the captain general of the province of Caracas, Don Pedro Carbonell. However, Carbonell was not keen on mutiny and wanted to take the surviving officers away from the mutineers and also safeguard any of the loyal crew. They were put under lock and key and the mutineers were given food and rum and allowed to go. Over the next couple of months the Spanish moved the Hermione up the coast to another smaller port called Puerto Cabello, where they had shipbuilding facilities to turn her into the Santa Cecilia. They hoisted the Spanish flag and she was now officially a Spanish warship.
What was the effect of the mutiny in Britain?
The news of the mutiny was brought first to Viceadmiral Parker, who commanded the Navy’s forces in the Caribbean. Parker was shocked, obviously, that he’d lost his ship but he still didn’t know exactly what had happened. It was only a few days later that they learned that the Hermione had been taken to a Spanish port in Venezuela and that the crew had indeed mutinied. A statement was issued by the Admiralty in December 1797, but of course it was partially embellished in the British press. After all, this was the bloodiest mutiny in the Navy’s long history. The British public were obviously enraged because they expected nothing but victories from their ships and men. Following this both the press and politicians demanded that every effort be made to hunt down and hang the mutineers. So the Admiralty launched an international manhunt. However, at the back of their mind was also the second thing they really wanted – their frigate back.
Vice-admiral Parker, in mid-september of 1799, called in Captain Edward Hamilton. Hamilton commanded a small 28-gun frigate called the HMS Surprise, much less well-armed than the Hermione but she had been really useful in previous cutting out operations [taking an enemy ship at anchor]. Hamilton was chosen because, firstly, he was available but he was also a good seaman, and he was popular. In the past year or so he had captured numerous prizes and was probably one of the most competent frigate captains. He was given intelligence reports that the Santa Cecilia, formerly Hermione, was now going to sail to Santo Domingo, the Spanish port. To get there, it had to pass the island of Aruba just off the South American mainland. So Hamilton was sent to patrol there and attack when the opportunity arose. Now, this was a tall order because his ship the Surprise was a good deal smaller than the Santa Cecilia. He was a brave man to be willing to do that. However, after a week or so the Santa Cecilia never turned up, so at that point Hamilton decided to go down to Puerto Cabello and cut her out himself.
“It’s a classic tale of the sea. It’s got mutiny, betrayal, murder, dashing cutting expeditions, sadistic captains”
What happened during the cutting out of the Ship?
The attack was extremely well planned and coordinated. The Surprise would lie just off the coast and all six of her ship’s boats, crewed by 100 officers and men, would enter the port and carry out the attack. Three boats would attack the frigate’s port side, and three on the starboard side. The boarders would then swarm aboard, take control of the upper deck, cut the anchor cables and head out to sea. The attack began late in the evening of Thursday 24 October 1799. But the British boats were spotted by the Spanish before they could reach the frigate, and so they had no choice but to row like hell and board anyway. However, not understanding the nature of the attack, the Santa Cecilia responded to the alarm by firing her starboard guns, thinking a British ship had entered the harbour. Hamilton was leading the attack and was first to board the frigate. Most of the Santa Cecilia’s crew were still below decks firing broadsides at an imaginary enemy, and didn’t have a clue what was really happening. Hamilton and his men knocked out a couple of sentries and then moved aft to capture the wheel. At this point only 34 British sailors and marines had reached the ship, so they were outnumbered ten to one. Then, though, as more British attackers arrived they were able to contain the Spanish below on the gun deck. Once the Santa Cecilia began to head out of harbour, the Spanish guns turned on them, the gunners having finally realised what was going on. The frigate was hit below the waterline, but they were able to get a pump going and steer her out of the harbour. At that point the fight began to go out of the Spanish hemmed in below deck. After two hours of fighting, Hamilton and his boarding party managed to successfully rendezvous with the Surprise.
What happened to the mutineers and the Hermione?
After the mutiny the Navy never really let up on hunting down the mutineers. Most were not going to be found: they had taken jobs in Spanish colonies or fled to the United States. One of the most notorious – the assistant to the ship’s surgeon – settled down as a doctor in Caracas. The last mutineer to be caught was in 1806, so the hunt continued for a long period. There were 33 in all and 24 were hanged. As for the Hermione, originally she was renamed by Parker as ‘Retaliation’. However, the Admiralty wanted something a little more viscous and so chose ‘Retribution’ instead – the name aimed squarely at the mutineers.
How did you approach the story in writing the book?
In the 1980s I was working with the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London. We did a lot of work with the National Maritime Museum and one day, on a visit there, I saw this painting entitled The Cutting Out
Of HMS Hermione. I knew nothing about it except it was painted by the celebrated artist Nicholas Pocock, who usually painted big patriotic celebrations of British victories. I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly celebrating what appeared to be an attack on a British ship. So I asked two curator friends of mine and they told me the story. Over the years I specialised in maritime history, and kept delving back into the story, uncovering more about both the diplomatic and manhunt aspects of it which hadn’t been fully covered before. It’s a classic tale of the sea.
It’s got mutiny, betrayal, murder, dashing cutting expeditions and sadistic captains! It’s a great story but it isn’t widely known about. Over about ten years or so it all coalesced into a coherent story, and so I decided to try to retell it, incorporating all this new information while also giving it – I hope – a new vibrancy.