Nore naval mutiny

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Nore naval mutiny, 1797. Unlike Spithead, the Nore, at the mouth of the Medway, was not a fleet station but an assembly point. This helps to explain the mutiny's uncoordinated nature, though its causes were fundamentally the same as Spithead's and it lasted for a similar period, from 12 May to 16 June. The noisome conditions in the depot/flag ship Sandwich, with her complement swollen by articulate ‘Quota Men’ (provided by counties and ports under the Acts of 1795) such as the mutiny's apparent leader Richard Parker, sparked an agitation which was disseminated through the anchorage, since the Spithead royal pardon did not obtain there. The coherent pattern of the Spithead outbreak was lacking at the Nore, but Sheerness was nevertheless cowed, Thames traffic halted, and from there up to Yarmouth the navy's guard against the hostile Dutch fleet lowered. Starvation, and a popularly supported governmental attrition, smothered the mutiny; Parker, and 29 of his erstwhile confederates, were hanged.

David Denis Aldridge