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Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection, by Leonard F. Guttridge (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1992, 3 l 8pp , photos , maps, biblio , index ; $26.95 hb) Leonard F. Guttridge, the well-known writer and respected historian, co-author with Hay D . Smith of The Commodores (a book that has stood the test of time for two decades), and author of Icebound:· The Jeannette Expedition's Quest for the North Pole, has filled one of two noteworthy lacunae in social and maritime scholarship--modem examinations of mutiny and dueling-with his latest book, Mutiny: A History of Naval In surrection. Guttridge's engaging writing style, smooth transitions and command of his topic (the latter quality a function of his consummate ability as a researcher) lead the reader gracefully through hi s text. A voiding a boring " beads on a string" approach to the subject, Guttridge hits the high ones hard. He leads off with the world 's most romanticized mutiny, William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty; curdles your blood by following with the most murderous mutiny, the death of the bestial Captai n Hugh Pigot and several of his officers on board HM Frigate Hermione; and then moves on to the great Royal Navy squadron mutinies of 1797 at Spithead and the Nore, which provide an ambience for the fleet mutinies of the 20th century he will discuss later in the book. Guttridge rattles down his rigging with two continuous threads subtl y woven throughout thi s treatise: What is a mutiny, and how many people does it take to consummate a mutiny? After centuries of examining the latter question, the Royal Navy, through Parliament's much amended Naval Discipline Act, has settled on a minimum requireme nt of two people. Perversely, the United States' Armed Services' UniformCodeofMilitary Justi ce adopts a different course and settles rather unfittingly on one person. Can a single sailor perpetrate a mutiny? Can he somehow be described as a mutinous assembly? People aside, the most nagging question of all is still begged. What is a mutiny? The historic anomaly is that many have attempted an answer-yet no orie has answered satisfactorily. Guttridge 's approach is to present the actual events of the world's key lower deck di sturbances and let the reader decide. The author draws a worthy compare and contrast evaluation of the difference
between events at Spithead and the Nore in 1797. Valentine Joyce, the en listed men 's chief delegate at Spithead, earned an encomium from an Admiralty spy: "Nothing like want of loyalty to the King or attachment to the government could be traced to this business." The curtain falls on this venue with Joyce joining Lord Howe (the Earl of St. Vincent, whom the First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl Spencer, dragged out of retirement to negotiate with the sailors) and hi s lady for dinner at the Portsmouth governor's house, where they were mutually cheered and toasted for their efforts. Not so the fate of Richard Parker, self-professed "President of the Floating Republic" at the Nore. For the Admiralty it was a case of reluctantly tolerating loyal rebellion , but fiercely suppressing the radicali zation of its sai lors (a political format that would play amajorrole in Russian, Austrian, and French 20th-century mutinies). When the upri sing seas had calmed at the Nore, Parker "ate a good breakfast, received a glass of wine and a handshake from his captain and psalms from the chaplain, and was hanged from the yardarm." The author's attention is strongly drawn to the Somers tragedy, often illogically claimed to be the United States Navy 's only mutiny. It is an interesting paradox that a sea service whose laws allow one man to constitute a mutiny , claims to have suffered but one such event in its two-century hi story. Guttridge, like James Fenimore Cooper before him, is no friend of the Somers's skipper, Alexander Sli dell Mackenzie. He principally indicts Mackenzie's punishment record. But was it a case of overabuse with the "cat-o-nine-tails" or the "colt" that led to the death sentence for Midshipman Spencer, Boatswai n Crowell, and Seaman Small by a drumhead court? As with most writers who have explored the Somers mutiny 's unanswered questions, Guttridge devotes little investigation to the ro le of the ship itself: the miniscule officers ' quarters, a tiny quarterdeck overflowing with shackled mi screants, the overcrowded ship with 20% more trainees on board than she could capably carry, and those sai lors jammed into quarters on a deck less than five feet tall. Surely Somers herself must have been part of the causation. The theme of the text swings from hi s tory to political science, without any loss in readability, when the author tu rns his attention to radicalism in the fleets of the world, beginning with the Tsar's
SEA HISTORY 64, WINTER 1992-1993