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Lot 380
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Eyewitness Account to Mutiny/Possible Murder Against Controversial British Captain, 1830s
Eyewitness Account to Mutiny/Possible Murder Against Controversial British Captain, 1830s
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Description:

Robert Corbet
Surrey, England, August 28, 1832
Eyewitness Account to Mutiny/Possible Murder Against Controversial British Captain, 1830s
AMS
A lengthy handwritten account by a British sailor of a mutiny at sea. 20pp, measuring 8" x 13", Guildford, Surrey, England, dated August 28, 1832. Signed "Jenkins Jones Capt Royal Navy." The manuscript contains approximately 8,800-9,000 words written by Jones and goes into great detail about a mutiny aboard the ship of the late Captain Robert Corbet. Jones provides context and amendments to the account of Captain Basil Hall on Corbet's conduct in an attempt to defend his character and reputation. With light creasing and wear. Some chipping and tears at the edges. Light toning and soiling throughout. The pages have started to come unbound. Boldly signed by Jones at the conclusion. A full transcript of the account can be provided upon request.

Highlights from the manuscript:
"It is only within the last few weeks that my attention has been directed by several of my brother officers to the comments of Captain Basil Hall, on the character and conduct of the late Captain Robert Corbet, more particularly under the trying circumstances of quelling a mutiny in his ship, and conducting that ship into action with a very superior force of the enemy… There are at present surviving three officers who respectively held the rank of lieutenant in the Africaine, when Corbet had the command of that frigate. I was then only a master's mate; but I had, nevertheless, full opportunity to judge of the nature of his discipline, and I can truly say that I have ever regarded it as an honour to have served under so excellent a commander. I shall now proceed to speak of such matters as came under my own observation. As regards the mutiny to which 'the men were driven by excessive severity,' it will, I dare to say, Sir, astonish you and your readers to be told, that so far from having suffered under the severe discipline of Corbet, the ship's company broke out into mutiny before he assumed the command, refusing to assemble themselves on the quarter-deck to hear his commission read, when the hands were called aft by the commanding officer, Lieutenant Tullidge, for that purpose. That Corbet's reputed severity caused this act of insubordination, I am ready to admit; but, on questioning every seaman and marine on board, individually, it did not appear that any one of them had served under the officer against whose authority they revolted; though, no doubt, many of them had 'interchanged exaggerations over an extra pot of grog' when indulged in the baneful practice of ship- visiting it afterwards, however, was ascertained that one skulking, sea lawyer fellow had given out 'that he sailed in the Néreid with Corbet, who flogged and turned him out of the ship for being ugly.' This man was mortally wounded in the action, and (as I learnt from one of his messmates who was present at his death) before he breathed his last, confessed that the story he had told was a fabrication…

…Nine days after we sailed, —namely, on the 3rd of July, a letter was thrown into the quarter-gallery window, threatening the Captain's life. Up to this time not a single lash had been inflicted on board…The Captain then read aloud the letter which had been thrown into the quarter gallery, and then, drawing his sword, exclaimed, 'My life in danger! who has most cause to be alarmed, you of this sword, of those of my officers, of the bayonets of the marines, and of the laws of your country, or I of your dastardly threats?' As master's mate, my station at punishment was on the main deck, consequently surrounded by the ship's company, and enabled to hear all that passed amongst them, and to watch them closely; and never did I witness more unaffected or overwhelming surprise than that exhibited by the men on hearing the letter read. The petty officers simultaneously came forward, and in the name of the ship's company, not only declared their entire ignorance of the letter and its author, but also their perfect satisfaction with the way in which they had been treated by their Captain. A moderate punishment was then inflicted on the prisoner; after which Corbet called out from among the men a fellow, whose name, I think, was Beal, and who had occasionally assisted the Captain's clerk in his duty; and, after expressing his conviction that the letter was the fabrication of one man, unknown to the others, he added, 'I shall take the trouble of reading to you, Sir, the last speech of the chief mutineer in the Temeraire; and I would advise you often to think upon it, lest you find yourself one day in his position.' I have no doubt that the just and keen discrimination of Corbet had enabled him to fix upon the right man. The marines were then ordered to discharge their muskets; the guard from that hour was discontinued; and the men and officers cheerfully and smartly performed their duty…

…Thursday the 13th of September… At 2h 30m A.M. opened our fire with the larboard guns double-shotted, which the Astree briskly returned (by the Captain's order we loaded with two round shot throughout the action) . The second broadside from the Astree proved fatal to our Captain, a shot striking off his right foot, and the thigh of the same leg receiving a compound fracture by a splinter at the same moment." So remarkable is the discrepancy between Captain Hall's statement at the point where we commenced action and the real state of things, that I must break through my first intention, and ask what becomes of Captain Hall's assertion, that " the Frenchmen seeing only one ship near them, and the other far astern, shortened sail, and prepared for the attack, &c. " And again, of Corbet's exclamation of " We shall take them both! steer right for them!" The enemy, Sir, were, until five minutes before the action, (when, as described above, they hauled their mainsails up) under all the sail which they could carry on a wind with reference to the state of the weather- (that is to say, double-reefed topsails, top-gallant sails, and courses) -we were under our three topsails and foresail, occasionally bracing the mizen-topsail The graphic pencils of such men as Marryat, Glasscock, or Hall, would have found ample materials for an entertaining chapter (if not volume) from what was narrated in Jack's best style on the Africaine's main-deck on that occasion…Captain Corbet never thought of " steering right for them, " (both is inferred): his last order to the men was, " Fire your guns as you bring them to bear, take cool aim, and do not throw a shot away."

…Corbet was carried below, with his death wound, ten minutes after the fight begun; and who will pretend to say what steps he would have taken had he kept the deck? I feel proud of having once served under Corbet's command. His memory will ever be sacred to me, as I am persuaded it also is to those who had an opportunity of justly appreciating his bravery, his coolness, his steady discipline, and those other professional qualifications which entitle him to rank high in the list of naval heroes who have fallen while fighting the battles of their country. I need not tell you, Sir, that it is to its discipline, rather than to its valour, that the British navy owes its superiority to all other navies. Corbet's system was not confined to positive commands, but involved constant attention to minute arrangements, a proper division of duty, and, in fact, such a system of order as enabled the subordinate authorities promptly to trace to its source whatever evil sprung up amongst us. Habitual alacrity was, certainly, indispensable in all who served under his command…Another party, who knew Corbet intimately in his private and public character, and who was a good judge of human nature, has expressed his estimate of Corbet's discipline in the following lines: 'Strict discipline, its best support to guard The coward's terror, and the brave's reward In trying scenes; while manly firmness shown, Maintain'd the navy's honour and thy own. Yet if thy rigid arm restrain'd the base, And doom'd the abandon'd few to just disgrace, Each British seaman who the name deserved, And who beneath thy dreaded pendant served, Will own, though stern control might such offend, Worth found in thee a patron and a friend ; And o'er thy bier must sigh with grief and pride, A matchless seaman fell when Corbet died!'…"

Captain Robert Corbet (died 13 September 1810) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who was killed in action in highly controversial circumstances. Corbet had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian who regularly beat his men for the slightest infractions. During his service in the Royal Navy his conduct allegedly provoked two mutinies, one simply at the rumor he was coming aboard a ship. When he took the frigate HMS Africaine into action off Île Bourbon in September 1810, his men failed to support him and rumors spread that his crew may have murdered him. As the account above states, Corbet's right foot was shot off during a battle with the Astrée, and the captain was brought below deck. Two hours later, the Africaine surrendered, and the French briefly took possession of the ship prior to the arrival of the Boadicea. By the time British officers had resumed control of the ship, Corbet was dead. Almost immediately rumors spread that his death may have been the result of having been murdered by his crew, or of Corbet committing suicide to avoid the shame of defeat. The contemporary historian Basil Hall, who Jones frequently contradicts, was the subject of a lawsuit in 1820 over his claim that Corbet's men had refused to load their cannon and preferred death at the hands of the French to continued service under their brutal captain. The claim was ultimately proven to be false, and Hall was forced to make a retraction.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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