The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-05-04

satisfaction to know that five of the
mutineers were taken prisoners while
lighting against us soon afterward, and
promptly hanged.
A precisely similar attempt was made
in the same year to seize the Hermoine,
with the avowed intention of handing
her also over to France. Happily the
scheme was frustrated, but the COM
mander of the ship. one Pigot, was bru-
tally murdered. He descended into the
fo-castle to reason with the malcon-
tents, and was set upon and literally
hacked to pieces, the fragments of the
carcass being afterward thrust through
one of the portfolios. For participation
in this diabolical crime two men, named
respectively James Allen and John
Watson, were afterward hanged at
Portsmouth.
The rising on board the London in
May, 1897, was really a sequel to the
bloodess mutinv which broke out at
Spithead earlier in the same year. The
London was Admiral Colpoy's flagship,
and was being approached by boat in
which were some unarmed men from
the other ships of the fleet bearing a
petition. The admiral forbade them TO
approach, and on their persisting, he
ordered a guard of marines to fire
upon them. The volleying of the mus
kets was a signal for an immediate up
rising on the part of the London's
crew. The marines were overpowered
and disarmed, Colpoys was seized and
roughly handled, and the other officers
were sent on shore.
In this case, as in most others, the
,fr,.N 1nNyn
therefore. all the more alarming when
a serious mutiny was discovered, lit
tie later on. to have been hate he'd
among the marines of the Plymouth
squadron. Luckily, on the morning of
the day the plot was to have been
put into execution, one of the mutt
neers turned traitor. with the result
that the authorities were on their
guard and the rising was suppressed
almost ere it had begun.
The following morning at daybreall
three of the ringleaders-Lee, Coffy and
Branning-were shot. Another, youth
of eighteen named McGinnis, received
the atrociOus sentence of 1000 lashes
with the cat. mine tails, the punish
ment to be inflicted in two installments
of 500 lashes each, cats to he ''pickled,'
and four to be Counted slowly" after
each stroke.
1t is seldom that one hears of a
naval mutiny in which the signal for
revolt has come. not from the men, but
from the officers. Yet something very
like this happened in August, 1902,
when staunch old Admiral Benbow put
out from Jamaisa to fight the French
fleet under Du Case. The British
squadron consisted of seven ships OF
from fifty to seventy guns, and Ben
bow felt sure of victory until he OBJ
served with dismay that five Of his
captains were deliberately disobeylnS
his orders. They, in fact, declined to
clap on sail, and were soon hull down
OH the horizon. Nevertheless, Benbow
attacked with his ship and the little
Ruby; but he had to retire in the end,
with more than half his men hors de
combat. and he himself mortally
wounded by a chain shot which had
shattered his right leg.
The last scene of this strange and
tragic episode--so creditabe to Ben
bow, SO disgraceful to most of the
others concerned-took place on the
quarterback Of his majesty's ship
Bristol, in Plymouth sound. in the
early morning Of April 16, 1903; when
Captain Kirby, Of the Defiance, and
two officers who We're proved to have
been the ring-leaders OF the mutiny.
were shot after trial by court martial.