HMS Hermione (1782)

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HMS Hermione was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1782, notorious for the mutiny which took place aboard her.

In the French Revolutionary Wars, she served in the West Indies, and in 1797 — the year of the Spithead and Nore mutinies — Captain Hugh Pigot was posted to command her. Pigot was a ruthless disciplinarian who meted out severe and arbitrary punishment. On September 21, 1797, Pigot ordered the topsails to be reefed, and dissatisfied with the speed of the operation, gave the order that the last man off the yard should be flogged. In their panic to get down, three young sailors fell to their deaths. When other sailors complained, Pigot ordered them flogged.

The crew mutinied that night, killing Pigot and eight other officers. It was one of the most violent mutinies in Royal Navy history.

The mutineers sailed for La Guaira, Venezuela, where on September 27, 1797, they handed the ship over to the Spanish. At first the mutineers claimed that they had set the officers adrift in the ship's boat (as in the mutiny on the Bounty eight years previously), but the true story soon got out and Sir Hyde Parker, commander of the West Indies station, ordered the mutineers to be hunted down. In all, 33 of the mutineers were captured and court-martialled and 24 were hanged.

Hermione, renamed Santa Cecilia by the Spanish, remained at Puerto Caballo until October 25, 1799, when 100 men from HMS Surprise led by Captain Edward Hamilton cut her out, killing 119. Hermione was renamed Retaliation, then renamed again in 1802 to Retribution. She was broken up in 1805.

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