Mutiny Aboard the Sovereign of the Seas 1854

The Sovereign of the Seas was an American clipper ship built in 1852. It was a sailing vessel that set the world record for the fastest sailing ship with a speed of 22 knots. She was built by Donald McKay of East Boston, Massachusetts, and the Sovereign of the Seas was the first ship to travel more than 400 nautical miles in 24 hours. On the second leg of her maiden voyage, she made a record passage from Honolulu, Hawaii, to New York City, New York, in 82 days. 

She then broke the record from New York City to Liverpool, England, in 13 days and 13+1⁄2 hours. In 1853, she was chartered by James Baines of the Black Ball Line which ran from Liverpool to Australia. It was in 1854 while making the return passage from Australia to England, that she ran into trouble. 

During the last week of June in 1854, the clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas with Capt. Warner commanding arrived in London, England, from Melbourne, Australia, with 76 passengers aboard. What should have been an uneventful trip made several times in the past was certainly anything else but uneventful. 

On the 17th of March, the clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas had a mutiny on board while crossing the Equator. The mutiny was the result of a crewman being put in irons after he was involved in a quarrel with two of the steerage passengers below deck. 

The First Mate interfered in the quarrel and ordered the seaman on deck. When the seaman refused and became abusive, the seaman was put in irons. He was put in iron at the direction of the ship's Captain.

Shortly after the seaman was put in irons, the rest of the crew mustered aft and demanded that the Captain immediately release the seaman. If not, the crew said they'd take the ship. The crew made sure their demand was delivered to Capt. Warner. The ship's Captain didn't wait to respond. He immediately took action. 

Reports say that the Captain ordered the ship's junior officers to gather together a large number of the passengers. He then told them to arm themselves -- including having muskets and bayonets at hand. At the point of a bayonet, the Captain, ship's officers, and passengers drove forward to confront the mutinous crew. In fact, the Captain, officers, and passengers, all armed, fought the crew for possession of the ship. In the fight, four of the mutineers were wounded.  

With the crew still refusing to return to duty, six were picked out and placed on one side of the deck to be in chains. At that moment, a crewman named Hall stepped forward to urge the rest of the crew to make a stand and let their shipmates be put in irons. From there, it's said Hall moved toward the Captain. He was warned, and refusing to cease and desist, Hall was shot at by Capt. Warner. 

The round missed Hall but instead hit the First Officer. Passing through the First Officer's leg, it was said to be a severe wound. Of course, while Hall was not hit, the shot stopped Hall in his tracks. After that, he and the others were immediately seized, placed in irons, and dragged below. 

On their arrival in London, the British Government declined to grant the application of the American Consul to adjudicate in the case. There was a reason for that. While the Sovereign of the Seas was an American clipper ship, most of its crew of mutineers were English subjects. Because of that, the American Consul determined to send the American crewmen to New York with the next mail steamer to New York. But that didn't happen. 

The American Consul wanted to send the American mutineers back to the United States against the wishes of the friends of the prisoners. This didn't happen because a carpenter of the Sovereign of the Seas secretly set them free to escape the ship. According to the account of what happened after that, the escaped American prisoners stayed with friends in London while waiting for the American Consulate to help them retrieve their lost wages -- wages that they forfeited when they mutinied. 

Imagine that for a moment, American mutineers tried to get the American Consul, who knew they were escaped prisoners, to help them get paid for the work that they did before the mutiny. That's incredible when you think about it, the mutineers thought they should get paid even though they mutinied. Those mutineers were lucky that they weren't rotting away in an English prison.

According to the San Joaquin Republican newspaper published on June 26th, 1854, it said that "no attempt had been made to re-arrest the escaped American seaman, and it is very probable, owing to the disputed question of jurisdiction, that they will all be allowed to get off" -- albeit without pay.

As for the fate of the Sovereign of the Seas, the majestic ship of 2,421 tons, her length of 252 ft., her beam of 45.6 ft, and her draft of 29.2 ft, she ran aground on August 6th, 1859. On a run from Hamburg, Germany, to China, the Sovereign of the Seas ran aground on the Pyramid Shoal in the Strait of Malacca between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest. She became a total loss. A sad end to a great ship.

Tom Correa