Mutiny
Midshipman David Casey was an experienced junior officer who had distinguished himself to Captain Pigot during the previous months, but his disrating was one of the primary triggers to the mutiny. About a week before the mutiny, Casey was at his station on the main top, and the captain noticed that a reef knot, one of the ties that held the sail securely, had not been tied by one of the sailors under his supervision. Casey was brought before the captain, and apologised for the oversight and took responsibility for it. The captain demanded that Casey apologise on his knees, a completely unacceptable and debasing demand for a gentleman. Casey refused to be humiliated in such a way. Pigot offered him one more opportunity and when Casey once more refused, the captain ordered that Casey receive 12 lashes (more commonly a sailor's punishment than that of a junior officer), and he was disrated, which would effectively end his career as a naval officer. Casey was a popular officer amongst the crew and they felt that he was punished unfairly. The topmen began to plot mutiny.
Pigot had also developed the practice of frequently flogging the last sailor down from working aloft. On 20 September 1797, Pigot ordered the topsails to be reefed after a squall struck the ship. Dissatisfied with the speed of the operation because "these would be the yard-arm men, the most skilful topmen" he gave the order that the last men off the yard would be flogged. This policy was particularly unreasonable as the men would be spaced along the yard, and the two whose stations were furthest out would always be the last down. Three young sailors, in their haste to get down, fell to their deaths on the deck. One of the sailors hit and injured the master, Mr. Southcott. Pigot ordered their bodies thrown into the sea with the words "throw the lubbers overboard"; a particularly offensive insult in the seaman's vocabulary. He then instructed two bosun's mates to flog the rest of the topmen when they complained. The topmen were also flogged the next morning.
The combination of the humiliation of Casey, the deaths of the topmen, and the severe punishment of the rest of the sailors appears to have driven the crew to mutiny. These factors, however, were arguably the final events in a series of harsh and brutal punishments by the captain. Dudley Pope, in his book The Black Ship, argues that it was not Pigot's cruelty that drove the men to mutiny but the general injustice that he showed in his favouritism to some and overly harsh punishment of others. Had Pigot remained more even-handed in his leadership, the mutiny might have been avoided.
The evening of 21 September 1797, a number of the crew, drunk on stolen rum, rushed Pigot's cabin and forced their way in after overpowering the marine stationed outside. They hacked at Pigot with knives and cutlasses before throwing him overboard. The mutineers, probably led by a core group of just 18 men, went on to murder another eight of Hermione's officers: the first lieutenant, Samuel Reed, the second lieutenant, Archibald Douglas, the third lieutenant, Henry Foreshaw, the marine commander, Lieutenant McIntosh; Bosun William Martin, Purser Pacey, Surgeon Sansum, and the captain's clerk. Two midshipmen were also killed, and all the bodies were thrown overboard. Three warrant officers survived, the gunner and carpenter were spared because they were considered useful to the ship, and Southcott the master was spared so he could navigate. Southcott lived to be a key witness, along with Casey, who was also spared, and their eyewitness accounts and testimony were key to the trials of many of the mutineers. Three petty officers joined the mutiny, one midshipman, Surgeon's Mate Cronin, and Master's Mate Turner.
Fearing retribution for their actions, the mutineers decided to navigate the ship toward Spanish waters. One reason the master's life was spared was Turner could not navigate the ship properly without his help. The Hermione sailed to La Guaira, where they handed the ship over to the Spanish authorities. The mutineers claimed they had set the officers adrift in a small boat, as had happened in the mutiny on the Bounty some eight years earlier. The Spanish gave the mutineers just 25 dollars each in return, and presented them with the options of joining the Spanish army, heavy labour, or refitting their ship. The Spaniards took Hermione into service under the name Santa Cecilia; her crew included 25 of her former crew, who remained under Spanish guard.
Read more about this topic: HMS Hermione (1782)