Mutiny

If a ship [lets say british] mutinied and were welcomed by an enemy nation [lets say spain] who later changes sides and becomes an ally. What would the position of the mutineers then be and would either nations stance towards them change.

The previous country or in this example Britain would not accept them for it would be against the expectations of military order. Spain on the other hand would probably be asked to return the mutineers who would then be put on trial for mutiny and probably hung.

It wouldn't happen. Mutiny is by definition a rebellion against the authority of the ships masters, if successful the ship becomes either leaderless, or ends up under the control of one of the mutineers.

If it subsequently surrendered to another vessel then it would be taken as a prize, a prize crew would be put aboard including new officers from the nation that captured it. The mutinous crew would either be imprisoned, put ashore or impressed into the service of their new masters. But the vast majority of the new crew would be from the new nation.

If that nation then allied with the previous owner of the vessel its unlikely that one of the conditions would be the return of all previously captured ships, but even if that was the case the ship would be handed back deviod of its crew, including any of the mutineers that still lived.

More likely, would be a request for the ring leaders of the mutiny to be handed over for execution, and its unlikely that an ally would refuse such a request given that mutiny and piracy were a crime under international law.

It could happen if amutineeing crew decided to make sail for an enemy port under a flag of truce, before explaining the situation and being welcomed by these people [this is all theoretical]

Unlikely, you don't escape from one jail merely to knock on the door of the next one in the street and ask them to let you in.

In 1629 a Dutch East India Company ship the Batavia, took her maiden voyage to what is now Jakarta in Indonesia.
She was the pride of the merchant fleet and was command ship of a small convoy under the command of Commander Francisco Pelsaert.

Her Captain Ariaren Jacobz had, by the time the convoy left Capetown, determined to cause a mutiny, sieze the ship, throw overboard all but around 120 people, keeping the women.

They would then use the ship to go 'pirating' - preying on other ships of the company. Once full with treasure they then intended to sail to Spain or Portugal, suggesting that the experienced Captain had at least some reason to believe they would be able to do so.

The plan was put in motion by the Captain so directing the ship that she became seperated from the rest of the fleet.

However on the night before the mutiny was to be carried out, the ship struck an offshore reef of the Albrolhos Group a little way North West of where the town of Geraldton in Western Australia is now.

What followed is a story so incredible, of murder, rapine, heroic defiance, last minute rescue and retribution, that the most lurid writer of pirate tales could not imagine it.

I know it's a little out of our time-frame but thought it worthwhile using this thread to let you know about this true tale so you can google it -as it is truly one of the most gripping stories I have ever read (and it being pretty local have seen the raised wreck and artifacts in Geraldton museum, raised after the wreck was rediscovered in the 1960's)

Cheers

Lucius

A typical tale of of one mans selfish desire for money and power, Though the account I read doesn't mention piracy as part of the plan. In fact, as I understand it the temptation was that the Batava was already stuffed with with a huge supply of gold and silver before it sailed from Texel bound for the Dutch East Indies to buy spices, and the plan was quite simply to seize the ship grab the money and then find a quiet place to live in comfort for the rest of their lives.

Quite what the details of that plan were is difficult to tell as the ship struck a reef near Beacon's Island off the coast of Westerm Australia before the mutiny actually took place. Mainly it seems because Franciso Pelsaert failed to rise to the provocations that that the conspirators had organised to alienate him from the crew.

In fact, the mutiny didn't finally occur until after the ship had sunk, everyone was ashore, and Pelsaert had sailed off on a heroic adventure to find fresh water and rescue with most of the other senior officers leaving the treacherous Ariaen Jacobsz in charge of the survivors.

It appears that Pelsaert was completely unaware of the plot to take his ship and when he finally arrived in Batavia the only charges he brought were against the ships boatswain Jan Evertsz, who was immediately arrested and executed for negligence and "outrageous behaviour". The outrageous behaviour probably refers back to one of Jacobsz planned provocations where a young noble woman was deliberately subjected to an indecent assault by certain members of the crew, in order to provoke Pelsaert to over-react and inflict punishments on them. However, it seems that though the woman had identified who had attacked her Pelsaert cunningly pretended he did not know who did it until he was safely ashore and back in civilisation.

All in all it was a huge 'cock-up' from Jacobsz point of view as he ended up stranded on an island with no fresh water and no food except sea lions, in charge of a bunch of desperate men who were convinced that if and when they were rescued they would be hung. Ironically, he even screwed that up as he contrived to maroon all the loyal soldiers and sailors on another nearby island with no food or weapons to die of thirst, only to find out later that the island he marooned them on was the only one to have any water on it. Thus ensuring their survival whilst his supporters slowly went mad with thirst.

Ultimately, it was these men who finally managed to return and restore control just before the rescue ship arrived, and then testified against Jacobsz and his supporters at the impromptu trials that took place on the island before they left.

Originally Posted by Didz

A typical tale of of one mans selfish desire for money and power, Though the account I read doesn't mention piracy as part of the plan. In fact, as I understand it the temptation was that the Batava was already stuffed with with a huge supply of gold and silver before it sailed from Texel bound for the Dutch East Indies to buy spices, and the plan was quite simply to seize the ship grab the money and then find a quiet place to live in comfort for the rest of their lives.

There are comprehensive confessions of the mutineers, several of which mention the plan to go pirating. My primary source was 'Voyage to Disaster' by Henrietta Drake-Brockman - ISBN 978 1 920694 72 2
which is a very thorough examination of the original documents and includes bibliography.

Originally Posted by Didz

In fact, the mutiny didn't finally occur until after the ship had sunk, everyone was ashore, and Pelsaert had sailed off on a heroic adventure to find fresh water and rescue with most of the other senior officers leaving the treacherous Ariaen Jacobsz in charge of the survivors.

Ariaen Jacobsz went with Pelsaert in the boat to look for water - which they couldn't find and headed to Batavia (now Jakarta) arriving in about three weeks. Back on the islands the shipwrecked people were left in the charge of Jeronimus Cornelisz, the next most senior company man and it was he, with a small group of men who had been involved in the mutiny conspiracy, that began a reign of murder and rape - at first covertly but more openly as time went on.

Originally Posted by Didz

....he contrived to maroon all the loyal soldiers and sailors on another nearby island with no food or weapons to die of thirst, only to find out later that the island he marooned them on was the only one to have any water on it. Thus ensuring their survival whilst his supporters slowly went mad with thirst.

This much is true, a party mainly of soldiers were stranded, without their muskets, on the pretext that they were to look for water and when found to send a smoke signal so the boat could come with water barrels. They found a good supply of water in a natural cistern and sent the signal - nobody came.

Due to a heavy rainfall and the reduced numbers, the mutineers on Beacon Island had enough water and some ships-food but mainly survived on seals, fish and seabirds.

With the seabirds and Wallaby's on the soldiers island,the men were well supplied and then several people managed to escape seperately and join them, telling of the murders and rabid acts by Corniliuz and his men. The leader of the soldiers was Webbe Hayes who had a small fort built commanding the only access onto the island they were on (the fort can still be seen, we flew over it in a light plane on a 'Batavia' sight-seeing flight (you can't go onto the islands, only the cray fishermen can do that)) - and the men made 'pikes' from flattenning and sharpening pieces of metal and fixing them to Branches.

Originally Posted by Didz

Ultimately, it was these men who finally managed to return and restore control just before the rescue ship arrived, and then testified against Jacobsz and his supporters at the impromptu trials that took place on the island before they left.

In fact the situation was very different.
The mutineer's had killed almost everybody else except themselves (and a couple of the fainter hearted of them had also been killed) and the desirable women.
They had determined that when the rescue ship from Batavia (now Jakarta) arrived that they would seize it by surprise before their vicious crimes could be revealed. The only problem with this plan was Webbe Hayes and his men on the other island.

They had made two unsuccessful attacks on the soldiers, then Corniliuz offered a truce and went onto the island with four others, they were pretending to offer cloth for clothing in return for the small boat that had been taken by some of those who had escaped him, but Webbe was not fooled and seized him and his four mates, who were killed immediately and Corniliuz tied up.

14 days later the mutineers, now lead by Walter Loos, made another assault using the two muskets , four of Webbes men were hit (one later died) and things were beginning to look bleak - when the rescue ship under Pelsaerts command hove into view !!

The mutineers rapidly got into their larger boat intending to reach the rescue ship first but had to row around the island to reach the ship. Webbe saw a small boat being rowed from the ship to another nearby island - unseen by the mutineers and , determined to warn the rescuers, he rowed there in the small boat and found Pelsaert and warned him.

They immediately returned to the ship and when the mutineers rowed up in their boat, the cannon and muskets held by the ships crew were trained on them.
They were forced to throw their weapons in the water and were then brought aboard and made prisoner.

The next day the ship (named the Sardam) sailed round to Beacon island where they took the remaining mutineers prisoner.

While further salvage operations were made at the wreck of the Batavia, Pelsaert questioned and obtained detailed confessions of each of the mutineers as well as the testimony of the surviving women and the few men who survived and had not taken an active role in the mutiny.
Most of the mutineers were hung from a gallows erected on another island nearby, two were put ashore on the mainland of Australia and several others whose role was less clear were taken back to Batavia.

Lot of detail there but there is obviously a huge amount of detail skipped, the various confessions alone take up many pages of the book ' Voyage to disaster'

Cheers

Lucius