Pirates & Privateers: Dudley Pope's Books

Anyone familiar with British naval history has probably come across the frigate Hermione. The bloodiest mutiny occurs aboard this vessel in October 1797. Her captain, Hugh Pigot, may have been the cruelest captain to serve in the Royal Navy. The mutiny is a direct outcome of the brutal discipline that he metes out to the men under his command. The mutineers murder him and nine of his officers, then sail Hermione to an island in the Spanish Main and gift the enemy with the ship. Those involved in the mutiny think they are finally free of the tyranny that has oppressed them, but they don’t count on the ruthless and dogged pursuit the British undertake to bring the men to justice and to recapture the frigate.

The author covers the people and events leading up to the mutiny, as well as its aftermath in twenty-eight chapters. The book includes five appendices (The Effect of a Flogging, Floggings ordered by Captain Wilkinson in Hermione, Floggings ordered by Captain Pigot in Success, The Men Active in the Mutiny, and Recorded trials for mutiny in the Royal Navy for 1798), notes and bibliography, and an index. Various types of illustrations accompany the text. Aside from the mutiny, the book also mentions quite a few privateer incidents involving Hermione.

Pope, who has written several notable nautical novels, is also a maritime historian. He first comes across a brief reference to the mutiny in 1950. But this is “the first detailed story of the bloodiest mutiny that ever occurred in a ship of the Royal Navy, and it is written entirely from contemporary official and private documents.” (11) In deciding to investigate the incident at greater length, he wants to answer the question: “If Pigot was cruel . . . why did the crew stand Pigot’s tyranny for so long and then suddenly mutiny?” (12) Nor does the author rely solely on British documents. He also consults numerous Spanish resources, which enable him to successfully provide nearly a minute-by-minute reconstruction through the words of the men who know of, participate in, or endure the mutiny. To help determine why Pigot and others do what they do, Pope also consults with a psychiatrist to provide readers with the reason or motive behind what occurs.

Interesting facts and the men’s accounts of what transpires make this a compelling read. At times, Pope steps back from the story to explain certain aspects so that the reader better appreciates what happens. For example, significant space is given to flogging with the cat-o’-nine tails, detailing not only what it is, what it feels like to endure this punishment, and how it compares to the cat used in the army and punishments meted out to civilians ashore, but also how Pigot uses this punishment and the inequity with which various offenders suffer the lash. Equally telling and illuminating in the presentation is a) why the navy continues to pursue and punish the mutineers a decade after the mutiny and murders, for this incident occurs the same year as those at Spithead and the Nore; and b) how the British navy and the Admiralty learn of the mutiny aboard the frigate.