The Invergordon Mutiny by Alan Ereira

Author:Alan Ereira [Ereira, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General
ISBN: 9781317403128
Google: TuaoCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-10-05T01:25:47+00:00

7

Living with Mutiny

After the first explosion, this ‘Mutiny Atmosphere’ tends to burn itself out.

Lieutenant-Commander C. Drage,

‘Some Modern Naval Mutinies’, Conclusion

At 9.31 a.m., Tomkinson signalled that the exercises were cancelled: Malaya, Warspite, Repulse and the target tug St Cyrus were to return to harbour, and Valiant was to remoor. The remooring required a certain amount of tact: as the boys and Petty Officers began to work on the cable, the sailors assumed that this was another attempt to get the ship to sea. They lined up by the kedge anchor, and threatened to release it if work on the cables did not stop. The kedge anchor was an emergency device, easy to drop but complicated to get up again: unlike the main anchors, its capstan could not be worked by steam and required a large number of men. The cable officer explained what was happening and pacified the hands, and they went back to the forecastle to watch their officers in unaccustomed toil.

On each ship an attempt was now being made to investigate men’s grievances over the cuts, so that the Chief of Staff would have a satisfactory dossier to take with him when he left on the lunchtime train.

Now that the immediate crisis had passed without either violence or a break in solidarity, each ship began to follow its own distinctive pattern of life. In Nelson, where the men were quite confident of their position, the normal work of harbour routine continued as though nothing had happened. The older men who were taking responsibility for the action held their own meetings and discussed the position with the Commander. The only sign that there was anything unusual was the constant crowd of men on the forecastle, cheering at intervals to show that they were still refusing to go to sea. In the York, where a show of force had shaken a number of the crew, there was not even a forecastle gathering any longer: after all, the York had no sailing orders to strike against.

In Valiant and Rodney, however, a normal harbour routine was being ignored. There had been a complete collapse of official authority, and on these ships the informal authority of the older men was not strong enough to take over. John Sampson remembers the mutiny in Rodney as a holiday.

We spent the rest of the day till dinner time on the upper deck, joining in with the lads, cheering the ships in the Fleet. We came down to dinner, and then in the afternoon volunteers were called for; the baker needed flour and asked for volunteers to go to the stores, and the galley wanted meat, so volunteers were called for to bring up the meat from the cold store room. They were never short of volunteers.

They were playing the piano, a bit of a sing-song, they played the ‘Red Flag’ very often. Leaders stood up on the fo’c’s’le with some of the crew around, giving morale-boosting speeches. ‘Stick together – we don’t want this pay cut – if we all stick together they’re bound to give in eventually.

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