Hugh Pigot (Royal Navy officer, born 1769)
Through his connections and their patronage, he was able to rise to the rank of captain, despite apparently poor leadership skills and a reputation for brutality.
Writing in 1826 William James (naval historian) stated, "...he has been described to us by those who knew him well, as one of the most cruel and oppressive captains belonging to the British navy.
During a nine-month period, he ordered at least 85 floggings, the equivalent of half the crew;subsequently two of these men died from their injuries.
[4] Writer Dudley Pope has pointed out that beyond the frequency of flogging was Captain Pigot's "complete lack of balance".
[5] Like other British naval vessels operating in the Caribbean, Captain Pigot increasingly became reliant on impressing merchant seamen to fill out his crew.
He was initially to return to England after this, but Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, then in command at Jamaica, thought that Pigot had been represented badly and allowed him to transfer to the 32-gun HMS Hermione instead.
[3] Pigot took command of HMS Hermione on 10 February 1797, making a habit of giving preferential treatment to members of the crew who had previously served under him.
About a week before the mutiny, Casey was at his station on the main top, and the captain noticed a reef knot which had not been tied by one of the sailors under his supervision.
Three young sailors, in their haste to get down and avoid the punishment, fell to their deaths on the deck, one of whom hit and injured the master Southcott.
The evening of 21 September 1797,[14] a number of the crew, drunk on stolen rum, rushed Pigot's cabin and forced their way in after overpowering the marine stationed outside.
The mutineers claimed they had set the officers adrift in a small boat, as had happened in the mutiny on the Bounty some eight years earlier.
[18] Meanwhile, news of the fate of the Hermione reached Sir Hyde Parker when HMS Diligence captured a Spanish schooner.
[16] He also set up a system of informers and posted rewards, which eventually led to the capture of 33 of the mutineers, some of whom were tried aboard HMS York.
[8] To Parker's fury, Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh (only distantly related to William Bligh of HMS Bounty) had issued pardons to several former members of the Hermione's crew, including Pigot's elderly servant and his twelve-year old son, on the grounds that they could not reasonably have been expected to resist armed mutineers.
[8] The Hermione had meanwhile sat in Puerto Cabello until Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard HMS Surprise cut her out of the harbour on 25 October 1799.
