On this day, 24 April 1912, 284 firemen aboard RMS Olympic – the sister ship to the Titanic, due to depart the following day – went on strike in protest at the unseaworthy collapsible lifeboats which had just been installed, and many of which were rotten. Bosses then brought in replacement scab workers from Southampton and Liverpool. The following day a deputation of strikers witnessed a test of the collapsible boats, and upon seeing that only one was faulty, they agreed to set sail if it was replaced. However management then tried to keep the non-union scabs at work, so the crew objected, and 54 sailors left the ship in protest, forcing cancellation of its departure. All of them were arrested and tried for mutiny, and while convicted none were punished, and the bosses let them return to work, fearing public support for the strikers. The ship and its mutinous crew eventually set sail on 15 May.
Our latest podcast episodes are about a mutiny of sailors transporting napalm for US forces during the Vietnam war. Listen to it here: http://bit.ly/2UkOxLJ
(or find it on your favourite podcast app by searching “Working Class History”) http://bit.ly/2PwqZmk