The politics of mutiny: The Pompée at Spithead and beyond, 1797

Abstract

This is a micro-study of the most radical ship in the Spithead mutiny of 1797, the Pompée, which experienced another mutiny soon after the Spithead confrontation was settled. The court martial papers of this singular event reveal a politically divided crew, which leads one to reconsider the dynamics of mutiny in this tumultuous year. I argue against the conventional interpretation of inside-outside influences, of pre-political seamen infiltrated by radical forces and also against reductive binaries such as mutiny versus subversion. While stressing the seamen's own capacity for collective action and their exposure to the political currents of the 1790s, I suggest the Pompée's experience illustrates the volatility of maritime protest in a rapidly changing environment in which Britain dug deep into its population, maritime and non-maritime, national and international, to man its fleets.