Cecil Adams apparently never heard of the Wilkes Exploration Expedition, in which he suppressed a (probably justifiable) mutiny. Unless the question is about successful mutinies, but it doesn't seem like he uses that restriction in his own examples. And of course, it's also unsurprising that he's unaware of it--it's a little-known part of American history, at least until this book came out.

Hey Rand,

Getting a "Page cannot be found" http error when the second link ("this book") is clicked. What "book" is it that you speak of?

Sorry, should work now.

I think you mean Cecil _Adams_.

Hey, Moore, Adams...it's all good.

Thanks.

I read that book, and my impression was that Wilkes was a paranoid and the mutiny was in his head, his interpretation of the resistance he was getting because of severe low morale (caused, in part, by his own strict and capricious style of command). IMO his favorite mentor, Bainbridge, was no better. I strongly recommend the book, though; the US Exploration Expedition is every bit as important as the voyages of Capt. Cook and Capt. Vancouver, and the post expedition events were at least as interesting as reading, say, Caroline Alexander's book about the trials following the mutiny on the Bounty.

Also try his Mayflower, a gripping and fascinating story of the Plymouth colony. It will make you appreciate how easy life today is.

Remember - Hornblower did push the captain down the stairs.

Hornblower was British.

Not to mention fictional...

"Voyage of Discovery" by Philbrick, and the Alexander book on the Bounty, are currently in the book bins at Walgreens (at least here in Florida) priced at 2 for $10; that is where I got my copy of both. Full Disclosure- Walgreens is my employer, but I personally stand to gain nothing by posting the information, which I decided to mention as it is a saving on the amazon price and very likely to be locally available.

LAN3,

Most of the early USN commanders were actually pretty good, Bainbridge included. They were mostly very enlightened for the time, though some of them (Rogers, Truxtun, and Preble especially) could be remarkably unpleasant with their crews. Bainbridge especially stands out because of the way he held his men together while they were prisoners of the Dey of Tripoli for more than a year after the capture of the frigate Philadelphia - a lot of the things he did to keep them as a coherent unit have since been enshrined in official US doctrine regarding behavior if taken prisoner.

Best regards,
Mike Kozlowski