Mutiny on the Dreadnaught
In 1859, Captain Samuel Samuels faced down a troublesome crew of Liverpool-Irish known as the “Bloody Forties”, ending their attempted mutiny aboard The Dreadnought. Samuels had forewarning of the plot, and at the first indication of disobedience, he had the gang’s knives broken and provided a cup of grog as peace offering. A day later, the crew charged, knives resharpened, only to stare down the barrels of Samuels’s pistols. They retreated, but did not submit, even after 58 tense hours without rations.
At this point, Samuels enlisted the help of 17 German passengers. Two mutineers rejoined the Captain and provided information of his continued unsafety. Upon his next visit to the gang’s quarters, a brawl ensured, but Samuels was reinforced by the iron-bar wielding Germans. At last, the mutiny was subdued and the crew was put to work. The crew cheered and thanked Samuels for having made them better men, and as they docked in New York and the police arrived for questioning, the Captain granted clemency “to prove to these men that moral courage was superior to brute force”. At least, that’s how Samuels tells it in his 1887 autobiography From the Forecastle to the Cabin, written nearly thirty years after the voyage.
