'A vivid account of a forgotten chapter of British naval history.'
Dan Snow, Historian, TV Presenter and Broadcaster The true story of
one of the most notorious mutinies in naval history, which provided
inspiration for Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin and C.S.
Forester's Hornblower novels. In 1797 the 32-gun Royal Navy frigate
HMS Hermione was serving in the Caribbean, at the forefront of
Britain's bitter sea war against Spain and Revolutionary France.
Its commander, the sadistic and mercurial Captain Hugh Pigot ruled
through terror, flogging his men mercilessly and pushing them
beyond the limits of human endurance. On the night of 21 September
1797, past breaking point and drunk on stolen rum, the crew
rebelled, slaughtering Pigot and nine of his officers in the
bloodiest mutiny in the history of the Royal Navy. Handing the ship
over to the Spanish, the crew fled, sparking a manhunt that would
last a decade. Seeking to wipe clean this stain on its name, the
Royal Navy pursued the traitorous mutineers relentlessly, hunting
them across the globe, and, in 1801, seized the chance to recover
its lost ship in one of the most daring raids of the Age of
Fighting Sail. Anchored in a heavily fortified Venezuelan harbour,
the Hermione - now known as the Santa Cecilia - was retaken in a
bold night-time action, stolen out from under the Spanish guns.
Back in British hands, the Hermione was renamed once more - its new
identity a stark warning to would-be mutineers: Retribution.
Drawing on letters, reports, ships' logs, and memoirs of the
period, as well as previously unpublished Spanish sources, Angus
Konstam intertwines extensive research with a fast-paced but
balanced account to create a fascinating retelling of one of the
most notorious events in the history of the Royal Navy, and its
extraordinary, wide-ranging aftermath.
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