Invergordon Mutiny

[JorgeGG]

Hello there. Searching for unrelated things found the Invergordon Mutiny. It was as an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet that took place on 15–16 September 1931.

Did not find a ATL that deal with it. Kind of amazing considering that the National Government of Macdonald had made cuts to government spending and to benefits and wages and the level of unrest to these measures caused Labour Party to split.

Any ideas or why it did not spread further.

 

[Deleted member 94680]

In summarising the mutiny for the Admiralty, Tomkinson reported that the crews had remained respectful to their officers throughout, and that officers had done their best to explain the government's reasons for the cut in pay and that complaints would be taken seriously. He concluded that the mutiny had been caused primarily by the 25% cut for junior ratings who had joined the service before 1925, that there were no grievances besides the pay cut, and his belief that the complaint was well founded. He also believed that any use of force would have made the situation much worse.
Source: wiki page on the Mutiny

I’ve always felt the Invergorden Mutiny was never really a ‘Mutiny’ in the sense one thinks of when the term is normally used. There was no attempt to overthrow any authority, military or civil, and violence was not used. It was more of a strike, as in an industrial action, in this case a pay dispute.

As to how to make it worse? Have a hothead Marine officer use force to clear some of the early gatherings? Somehow get it to spread to other bases? The hard thing here is there was no desire to make it spread or make it violent. The ratings wanted to air their grievances over the pay cuts and nothing else. They maintained safety aboard the ships and generally were still decent towards the officers. There weren’t any attempts to use violence (that I am aware of) or to make any further statements or actions other than protest to the pay issue.