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The Wooden World Turned Upside Down: Naval Mutinies

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The Wooden World Turned Upside Down: Naval Mutinies THE WOODEN WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: NAVAL MUTINIES IN THE AGE OF ATLANTIC REVOLUTION by Niklas Frykman B.A., University of Sussex, 2001 M.A., University of Sussex, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Niklas Frykman It was defended on July 8, 2010 and approved by Seymour Drescher, Professor, Department of History Van Beck Hall, Associate Professor, Department of History John Markoff, Professor, Department of Sociology Dissertation Advisor: Marcus Rediker, Professor, Department of History ii Copyright © by Niklas Frykman 2010 iii THE WOODEN WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: NAVAL MUTINIES IN THE AGE OF ATLANTIC REVOLUTION Niklas Frykman, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 Mutinies tore like wildfire through the wooden warships of the revolutionary era. While sans- culottes across Europe laid siege to the nobility and slaves put the torch to plantation islands overseas, out on the oceans naval seamen by the tens of thousands turned their guns on the quarterdeck, formed committees, elected delegates, and overthrew the absolute rule of captains. Never before or since have there been as many mutinies on both sides of the front, as well as among many of the neutral powers, as during the French Revolutionary Wars. This dissertation, based on research in British, Danish, Dutch, French, Swedish, and US archives, traces the development of the mutinous Atlantic from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to its crescendo in 1797. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1 2.0 THE WOODEN WORLD ................................................................................................. 18 2.1 MOBILIZING MANPOWER .................................................................................. 20 2.2 LIFE AND DEATH IN THE WOODEN WORLD ................................................ 30 2.3 LOWER DECK RESISTANCE ............................................................................... 40 2.4 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 45 3.0 REVOLUTION, 1789-1793 ............................................................................................... 48 3.1 “INFLAMMABLE DISPOSITIONS” ..................................................................... 52 3.2 “TO THE AXES! TO THE AXES!” ........................................................................ 68 3.3 “BAD EXAMPLES ARE CONTAGIOUS” ............................................................ 80 3.4 “VIVE LA NATION! LES ARISTOCRATES À LA LANTERNE!” .................. 94 3.5 “DOWN WITH THE WHITE FLAG, OR DEATH!” ......................................... 118 3.6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 131 4.0 WARFARE, 1793-1796.................................................................................................... 138 4.1 “TO GO NAKED INTO THE NORTH SEA” ...................................................... 141 4.2 “WE’LL BREAK YOUR NECKS IN LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY” ......... 159 4.3 “WE SHALL BE UNDER THE NECESSITY TO FREE OUR SELVES”....... 181 4.4 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 205 v 5.0 STRIKE, 1797 .................................................................................................................. 209 5.1 “RED FOR EVER” ................................................................................................. 215 5.2 “THE TIMES REQUIRED SUMMARY PUNISHMENTS” .............................. 243 5.3 “ALL THE OFFICERS MUST BE PUT TO DEATH” ...................................... 261 5.4 “SPIRIT OF SEVENTY-SIX, WHITHER HAVE YE FLOWN?” .................... 280 5.5 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 299 6.0 CONCLUSION: THE MARINE REPUBLIC .............................................................. 302 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................ 312 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 313 vi PREFACE Writing these things is not easy, it turns out. I am therefore deeply grateful to an extraordinary group of teachers who have accompanied me as I grew into the kind of person who could do it: Jon Carver of Lima Senior High School, Anton Menton of the Gymnasium am Romäusring, and Michael Dunne of the University of Sussex. Particular thanks of course go to friend, comrade, and mentor Marcus Rediker, whose humbling example of principled engagement with the past will continue to guide me in my future attempts to figure out what on earth has happened to bring our societies to the state they are in now. Even if he won’t let me sit under a tree. The History Department at the University of Pittsburgh has given me an education of the very highest standard, and I am especially happy to have had the opportunity to work with Seymour Drescher, Van Beck Hall, and John Markoff over the past few years. Their tricky and troublesome questions have improved my thinking. Thank you all. It is also not cheap to write these things. I am very happy to acknowledge the generous support I have received from the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the European Union Center of Excellence / European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, the Huntington Library in San Marino, the American Historical Association, the Sweden-America Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies, vii which awarded me an Andrew W. Mellon / ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship that allowed me to have a steady supply of outrageously overpriced cheese to help ease the terrible burdens of writing. One also needs to read things before one can write. I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that we are blessed with so many dedicated librarians and archivists who cheerfully put up with our obsessive behavior and occasional lapse of social grace, especially as most of them labor under the intense pressures of constant budget cuts. My thanks especially to the people at the Hillman Library in Pittsburgh, the British National Archives at Kew, the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the British Library in London, the William L. Clements Library in Ann Arbor, the Huntington Library in San Marino, the Dutch National Archives in The Hague, the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the French National Archives in Paris, the French Naval Archives in Vincennes and Toulon, the Danish National Archives, the Royal Library, and the Navy’s Library in Copenhagen, the Swedish National Archives, the Swedish War Archives, and the Royal Library in Stockholm. Friends, new and old, have played an equally important role. Lucy Capes, Russell Hall and Ann Baldridge, Isaac Curtis, Kenyon Zimmer, Ralf Schweimeier, and Tania Boster all cheered and grumbled me along. Karsten Voss, Linda Inouye and Dana Heatherton, Calle Jorns and Isabell Steger gave me somewhere to sleep while I was poking around in the archives. They were gracious and hospitable all. Calle and Isabell, embarassingly, took me on my first sailing voyage in Stockholm’s stunningly beautiful archipelago. More embarassingly still, I did not mutiny. I bought them licorice ice cream instead. viii Inspiration came from many sources. The Bristol Radical History Mob do to history what they should, they make it matter. Thank you. Peter Linebaugh, Peter Way, Jonathan Scott, Marcel van der Linden, Lex Heerma van Voss, Cornelis Lammers, Jaap Bruijn, Femme Gaastra, and audiences at the Bristol Radical History Week, the International Institute of Social History, the Great Lakes History Conference, the Irish Conference of Historians, the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, Bluestockings Bookstore in New York, and the American Historical Association’s Annual Meeting in San Diego all indulged my questions and ideas, and gave me theirs in return. Thank you, too. Michelle Horton reminded me that not everything that matters happened two hundred years ago, though sometimes I still find that difficult to believe. She put up with a lot, especially when the writing took on a somewhat frenzied character during these last few months. I have many dinners to cook and a huge debt of gratitude and love to repay. I can’t wait to begin. I have also badly neglected Mr. H and Mr. C, the world’s most charming cats. I hope eventually to be forgiven. My greatest thanks must go to my parents, Ann-Christine and Lars. Their kindness, love, and profound decency have set an example of how to be human in the world. Without their uncompromising support I would not be the person I am, nor would I ever have been able to write this dissertation. Tack, mamma och pappa. ix 1.0 INTRODUCTION General, your tank is a powerful vehicle it smashes down
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