On this day, 15 April 1797, Royal Navy sailors on 16 ships at Spithead near Portsmouth, England, mutinied demanding better pay and food, more shore leave, compensation for sickness and injury and the removal of some unpopular officers.
The mutiny spread to Plymouth, and the rebels elected delegates to negotiate with the Admiralty, which originally broke down over pardons which had been demanded, leading to several unpopular officers being disrespected and sent to shore.
But on 15 May Admiral Lord Howe intervened and agreed most of the demands, and the mutineers got their pardons. It started a wave of mutinies across the navy with increasingly radical demands, as working class consciousness amongst sailors rapidly began to spread.
Pictured: a contemporary cartoon of the mutineers’ delegates
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