Mutiny on the Spanish Main: HMS Hermione and the Royal Navy's Revenge
Angus Konstam
Mutiny on the Spanish Main tells the dramatic story of HMS Hermione, a British frigate which, in 1797, was the site of the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history, which saw the death of her captain and many of her officers. Though her crew handed her over to the Spanish, Hermione was subsequently recaptured in a daring raid on a Caribbean port two years later. Drawing on letters, reports, ship's logs and memoirs of the period, as well as previously unpublished Spanish sources, Angus Konstam intertwines extensive research with a fast-paced but balanced account of the mutiny and its consequences. Illustrated with maps and diagrams tracing the events as they unfolded, and supported by informative inserts on the technical and tactical nuances of seamanship and naval warfare in the period, this book is both a fascinating narrative retelling and an informative guide to one of the most notorious events in the history of the Royal Navy.
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Mutiny on the Spanish Main: HMS Hermione and the Royal Navy's Revenge is a solid historical account of a dramatic, thrilling, and absolutely brutal event. Konstam's writing elucidates, and never gets in the way, of telling what is, after all, a dark, gripping, and horrific tale of violence and murder, both from the mutineers and from the powers that be.
The influence of the king of Age of Sail fiction, Patrick O'Brian, can be felt in the occasional mentions of his work (for example, noting the events surrounding HMS Surprise, which features prominently in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series); likewise, this book would be enjoyed by any fan of O'Brian's books, replete as they are in the rich technical and historical detail that Konstam outlines and explains. The book as a whole is well-written and well-framed. Technical aspects, like the rigging of a ship and the vast quantity of jargon needed to understand the historic events and documentation of it, are contextualized and explained clearly, and the human element is given similar scrutiny. A well-crafted work that I'd recommend to fans of O'Brian and similar authors or amateur historians interested in the period, with or without prior knowledge of the Royal Navy in Nelson's day.
Thank you to NetGalley and Osprey Publishing for the advance review copy.
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