Bell, Christopher M.

Elleman, Bruce A.

Guttridge, Leonard F.

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 58Number 4 Autumn Article 182005Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: AnInternational PerspectiveLeonard F. GuttridgeChristopher M. BellBruce A. EllemanFollow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-reviewThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contactrepository.inquiries@usnwc.edu.Recommended CitationGuttridge, Leonard F.; Bell, Christopher M.; and Elleman, Bruce A. (2005) "Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: AnInternational Perspective," Naval War College Review: Vol. 58 : No. 4 , Article 18.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol58/iss4/18defense policy, and especially readersinterested in defense transformation.JOSEPH R. CERAMIColonel, U.S. Army, RetiredBell, Christopher M., and Bruce A. Elleman, eds.Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An In-ternational Perspective. London: Frank Cass,2003. 288pp. $125Throughout this excellent collection ofessays on what might rightly be calledthe mystique of mutiny runs a signifi-cant thread—that from centuries oflaws and regulations governing navalconduct and discipline there hasemerged no precise or universally ac-cepted definition of mutiny. Ambiguityhas clouded every effort to create one.The only consistent element, despitethe number of crewmen involved andthe growth of simple disobedience intoviolence, is the necessary presence ofusurpation and subversion of authority.This is evident in what thirteen writerscontribute here, in an authoritative andattractive style and tone. The mutiniesthey have selected for study are of acharacter so dramatic that no matterhow scholarly the approach and pains-taking the research, each tale is likely tointrigue the reader. Certain selectionsmay be familiar: the Russian battleshipPotemkin, the mass uprising that shookthe German High Seas Fleet in 1918,Invergordon, and the Port Chicago mu-tiny. The authors—Robert Zebroski,Michael Epkenhans of Germany’s Ottovon Bismarck Foundation, ChristopherM. Bell, and Regina T. Akers of the Na-val Historical Center—tackle their sub-jects with fresh appraisal and zeal. Thebloody Potemkin revolt led to the fall ofthe Romanovs. The mutinous Germanseamen sabotaged their government’swar effort. The Invergordon mutinythrew Great Britain off the gold stan-dard. Thanks mostly to the NAACP’sbrilliant young lawyer, ThurgoodMarshall, the Port Chicago episode notonly struck a blow at racial discrimina-tion but highlighted the endless debateof what constitutes a mutiny. Also, itshould not be forgotten that PresidentClinton’s pardon of Freddie Meeks in1999 still leaves the names of forty-nineAfrican-Americans on record as theonly convicted mutineers in U.S. navalhistory.The lesser known mutinies are dealtwith by equally qualified experts withcomparable skill and revelation. In 1910the fury of Brazilian sailors against bru-tal employment of the lash reflectedthat country’s discontent. After win-ning minor reforms from the rulingclass, the men of the dreadnoughtsMinas Geraes and Sao Paulo continuedto show the Brazilian flag abovesubequatorial waters, maintaining theircountry’s reputation as South Amer-ica’s leading naval power. The mutinyin the Adriatic Sea aboard the Austro-Hungarian armored cruisers SanktGeorge and Kaiser Karl VI in February1918 is said to have helped bring downthe Hapsburg monarchy. Yet as the au-thor of “The Cattaro Mutiny, 1918,”Paul G. Halpern of Florida State Uni-versity, asserts, the revolt lasted onlytwo days. Its causes were traceable to badfood, boredom, and plain war-weariness.Also mutinous, after four years of warwith Germany, were French sailorswhen ordered into war against RussianBolsheviks. While this event is the prin-cipal focus of the essay by French his-tory professor Philippe Masson, noticeB O O K R E V I E W S 1 5 7C:\WIP\NWCR\NWC Review Autumn 2005.vpThursday, August 18, 2005 9:57:51 AMColor profile: DisabledComposite  Default screen1Guttridge et al.: Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International PerspecPublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2005might have been taken of concurrentmutinous outbreaks prompted by thesame disinclination to fight Russians,after fighting Germans, onboard Britishwarships off Archangel and amongAmerican troops in the same region.Homesickness and wartime restrictionswere among the reasons why Australiantars defied their officers in 1919. TheChilean navy’s revolt had its roots, ashad that of the men of Invergordon, inthe world economic depression, but theChilean navy’s revolt is notable as thefirst naval mutiny crushed by air bom-bardment. Indian sailors in the waningyears of the British Raj staged lower-deck protests against their officers; theCanadian fleet developed “a tradition ofmutiny” in the 1930s; and the Chong-qing mutiny off Manchuria in 1949“played a pivotal role in the . . . found-ing of the People’s Republic of China.”Each story is briskly told, thoroughlydetailed, and accompanied by compre-hensive source data. Perhaps fortu-nately for riddle lovers, the questionpersists—what is a mutiny? Many of thePort Chicago fifty awaiting trial werebewildered, believing that a mutiny in-volved a crew overthrowing its officersand taking command of the ship.High-level brass can be just as con-fused. At a Senate Armed ServicesCommittee hearing following theVietnam-era disturbances on the U.S.aircraft carriers Constellation and KittyHawk, the chairman asked AdmiralElmo Zumwalt, then Chief of NavalOperations, to define mutiny. Zumwaltpassed that one on to his lawyer. Thechairman wondered aloud if the Cainemutiny of Herman Wouk’s novel,though fictional, was not the real thing;the CNO suggested that what happenedon the Bounty was a genuine mutiny.This book mentions these troubles onthe American flattops only in passing.Were all the episodes it covers trulymutinies? Let the question rest. This is afine book, eminently readable, and asdefinitive as any work can claim to beon the still mysterious matter ofmutiny.LEONARD F. GUTTRIDGEAlexandria, VirginiaBrown, Stephen R. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mar-iner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest MedicalMystery of the Age of Sail. Markham, Ont.:Thomas Allen, 2003. 254pp. $23.95The conquest of scurvy played as great arole as any naval battle in the history ofEngland’s domination of the world dur-ing the Age of Sail. Today we under-stand that scurvy is a condition causedby dietary deficiency. The typical menufor a sailor in the eighteenth centuryconsisted of biscuits, salt beef, salt pork,dried fish, butter, cheese, peas, andbeer—hardly sources of vitamin C. Ac-cording to the 1763 annual register tab-ulation of casualties among Britishsailors in the Seven Years’ War withFrance, of 184,999 men, 133,708 diedfrom disease, primarily scurvy, whileonly 1,512 were killed in action. Suchnumbers are hard to comprehend today.Brown implies that America won its in-dependence because the ravages of thisdisease prevented the British fleet frommaintaining an effective blockade. Onlya few years later, having conqueredscurvy, the same navy thwarted Napoleonfrom mounting an invasion force andsustained a blockade preventing theFrench and Spanish from consolidatingtheir ships into an effective fleet.1 5 8 N A V A L W A R C O L L E G E R E V I E WC:\WIP\NWCR\NWC Review Autumn 2005.vpThursday, August 18, 2005 9:57:52 AMColor profile: DisabledComposite  Default screen2Naval War College Review, Vol. 58 [2005], No. 4, Art. 18https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol58/iss4/18

Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective

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Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective

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