MUTINY!

In the spring of 1797 two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy broke out at Spithead near Portsmouth and at The Nore in the mouth of the Thames estuary. They were not violent insurrections but more in the nature of strikes which demanded better pay and conditions. Sailors had not seen a pay increase for well over 100 years and the practice of coppering the submerged part of hulls meant that British warships no longer had to return to port frequently to have their hulls scraped. This added years to the time at sea yet The Royal Navy chose to ignore any effects this may have had on its crews. Trade unionists and historians gathered near Spithead and at Leigh-on-Sea on Trafalgar Day to launch a new history of these significant naval mutinies. Peta Steel revealed that the Nore mutiny saw the first use of the Red Flag as a symbol for change, pointing out that sailors received nothing at all when wounded and were frequently flogged, lived in squalor and were fed on poor quality food and stale water. The pamphlet also puts the mutinies in the context of the turbulent, revolutionary times in which they took place including the revolutions in France and Haiti and the founding of the United States. SERTUC regional secretary Megan Dobney said that the TUC was keen to promote the lessons of the past. “We want workers to have a better life – the mutineers shared this aspiration and we pay tribute to their dream and work to make it a reality,” she said. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the mutinies were among the forgotten working class histories that should be remembered and celebrated. “They tell us that working people have always found ways to combine and defend themselves,” he said. Nautilus International general secretary Mark Dickinson said that history offered many lessons for the present, and the mutinies of more than 200 years ago have a resonance and relevance today. “The battle against abuse and exploitation, and the struggle for decent working conditions for seafarers in the globalised shipping industry, remain key issues in the 21st century,” he said. As a direct result of the mutinies many of the worst abuses prevalent in the Royal Navy up until this time, such as bad food, brutal discipline, and the withholding of pay, were addressed. While the mutineers at Spithead escaped punishment 29 of the ringleaders at The Nore were hanged after they dared to declare themselves a ‘Floating Republic’. However the vast majority of men involved were not punished at all. A pdf of the publication is available at http://sertucresources.wordpress.com/sertuc-publications- general/ Hard copies are available by contacting bdenny@rmt.org.uk Unions launch pamphlet remembering the naval mutinies at Spithead and The Nore in 1797 MUTINY! RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2013 :: RMTnews 26